[NYTr] UN's FAO Rep Ends 5 Years in Cuba with Thanks and Praise
 
Date: Sat, 4 Aug 2007 16:48:07 -0500 (CDT)


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Granma International - Aug 3, 2007
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2007/agosto/vier3/32fao.html

Cuba contributing technical personnel to the FAO 
for cooperation in various countries

Francisco Arias Milla, the FAO representative in Cuba, concludes
nearly five yearsb work on the island by expressing his thanks for its
governmentbs solid support

BY GUSTAVO BECERRA

CUBA is not only receiving the benefits of the UN Food and Agriculture
organization (FAO) but also has become a close collaborator of that
international agency in aid to other nations.

Francisco Arias Milla, the FAO representative in Havana, informed
Granma International that, as one example of that cooperation, there is
an agreement with the Cuban authorities giving the agency up to 200
technical personnel from the island for its diverse projects,
principally in Africa, South America and the Caribbean, and that there
is an interest in increasing that figure to 300.

Currently, some 40 specialists are on FAO missions. "They are not only
taking their technological knowledge, but also their discipline and
work ethics," Arias Milla added.

Just before the end of four-and-a-half years as representative in Cuba
of that UN agency, Arias expressed his thanks to the government "for
the solid support that it has offered us." There is a strong
institutional relation between the two parties that Jacques Diouf, its
director general is interested in maintaining and developing, he said.

In recent years, the FAO has undertaken various initiatives on the
island directed at supporting the authoritiesb efforts to achieve food
security, confront drought and develop an ecologically sustainable
agriculture, among others.

In a brief overview, Arias recalled that Cuba is a founding member of
the FAO and that cooperation between the two became closer after the
triumph of the Revolution with the initiation of joint projects in
areas like fishing and forestry, particularly in the creation of
research centers.

A Salvadoran and agronomist by profession, Francisco Aria Milla has 34
years of experience in 27 international institutions, via which he has
worked in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Mexico, Ghana, Kenya,
Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Burundi, Nigeria, the Ivory Coast, India,
Malaysia, Italy and the Dominican Republic.

His next destination is Venezuela, where part of his mission is to
support that nationbs joint initiatives with Cuba in the framework of
that grand integrationist project called the Bolivarian Alternative for
the Americas (ALBA), he explained.

Speaking of his fruitful stay in Cuba, he affirmed: "The only thing
that I regret is not having come earlier."

 
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