Cuba will implement measures to strengthen science and innovation in a bid to support the country's sustainable development, according to a strategy outlined during the ongoing session of Cuba's National Assembly.
Minister of Science, Technology and Environment Elba Rosa Perez said the measures, including the creation of science and technology parks, will unleash innovative potential which will contribute to local development.
She said that the Caribbean nation must create or further develop a series of high-tech companies associated with knowledge-intensive sectors such as biotechnology and the pharmaceutical industry, electronics, industrial automation, nanotechnology and renewable energies.
The country has already accumulated experience in building the Scientific Complex in Havana in the 1990s and establishing BioCubaFarma, Cuba's biggest biotechnology and pharmaceutical group, in the last few years, Perez told lawmakers in a session that will last until Saturday.
BioCubaFarma currently manufactures and distributes more than 1,000 products. It also has a consolidated international presence with its products being exported to around 50 nations and 2,640 registered patents both in Cuba and other parts of the world.
In a recent interview with Xinhua, Mayda Mauri, vice president of BioCubaFarma, said the company is looking forward to expanding its business in China.
Highlighting the "strategic cooperation" with China for over 15 years, Mauri said that currently, there are three joint ventures in China, two in the biomedical field and one in agriculture, as well as a soft capsule plant in Havana that use Chinese technology.
Several joint research centers and labs have also been established in the Asian nation, she added.
For the Cuban biotechnology sector, Mauri said, China is its top partner in different associations or joint ventures, bringing shared benefits and experiences.
"It's an example of what our country currently needs in order to increase exports, efficiency, savings ... and to diversify markets to counteract the current complex economic situation," she said.