http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/xinhua-news-agency/140612/interview-cubas-science-going-through-good-moment-official

SANTIAGO, June 11 (Xinhua) — Science in Cuba “is going through a good moment,” according to Danilo Alfonso Mederos, Cuba’s deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Environment.

In an interview with Xinhua in Santiago, Chile on Wednesday, Mederos explained: “it’s a good moment because (science) has increasingly developed in recent years, and kept with the main interests and challenges for the development of the country.”

Mederos was in Santiago to attend the first meeting of the Conference on Science, Innovation and Information and Communications Technologies on Tuesday, which was organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

In Cuba, “science is acknowledged as one of the pillars of sustainable development,” said Mederos.

The last Cuban Communist Party congress has given “a prominent place” to the policies of the Science, Technology and Environment Ministry, said Mederos.

“The goal is to make the island’s development sustainable, to prevent the waste of resources and always use them to benefit the general development of the country,” he said.

The minister especially mentioned Cuba’s advances in biotechnology, which was praised during the conference, saying they are “homegrown” and wholly developed in Cuba.

Several decades ago, he said, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro identified biotechnology as a field of vital importance to Cuba’s future development and gave primacy to the sector.

Mederos quoted Castro as saying: “we cannot be strong in everything, we have to choose in which fields we can be strong and biotechnology was a primary option, in which Cuba has developed highly.”

Mederos also mentioned Cuba’s cooperation with China in the field of biotechnology. “Cuba and China have set up biotech companies in the Asian country … to jointly produce biotech products.”

Such cooperation “has great development potential,” said Mederos.