-DATE-
19910430
-YEAR-
1991
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
-AUTHOR-
-HEADLINE-
Castro Statements at `Health for All' Fair
-PLACE-
CARIBBEAN / Cuba
-SOURCE-
Havana Tele Rebelde Network
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS-LAT-91-084
-REPORT_DATE-
19910501
-HEADER-
BRS Assigned Document Number:    000006393
Report Type:         Daily Report             AFS Number:     FL3004150191
Report Number:       FBIS-LAT-91-084          Report Date:    01 May 91
Report Series:       Daily Report             Start Page:     2
Report Division:     CARIBBEAN                End Page:       2
Report Subdivision:  Cuba                     AG File Flag:   
Classification:      UNCLASSIFIED             Language:       Spanish
Document Date:       30 Apr 91
Report Volume:       Wednesday Vol VI No 084

Dissemination:  

City/Source of Document:   Havana Tele Rebelde Network

Report Name:   Latin America

Headline:   Castro Statements at `Health for All' Fair

Author(s):   President Fidel Castro at the ``Health for All'' Medical Equipment
Fair in Havana on 29 April--recorded]

Source Line:   FL3004150191 Havana Tele Rebelde Network in Spanish 1042 GMT 30
Apr 91

Subslug:   [Statements made by President Fidel Castro at the ``Health for All''
Medical Equipment Fair in Havana on 29 April--recorded]

-TEXT-
FULL TEXT OF ARTICLE:
1.  [Statements made by President Fidel Castro at the ``Health for All''
Medical Equipment Fair in Havana on 29 April--recorded]

2.  [Excerpts] I am truly impressed with the efforts made in the last two years
and with the results. I thought I was informed of the main things that were
being done.  Nevertheless, I saw that there were many things that I did not
know about. There are new inventions and new achievements. I have witnessed
enormous enthusiasm among the comrades who are here. I also observed a great
spirit of cooperation among all the institutions. I saw more things. I saw
everyone not only thinking about saving resources and producing goods such as
medicine, which used to be imported, but I also saw great concern not only in
producing for our consumption but also production for exports. There is great
concern about exporting equipment and medicine of the type you are developing.

3.  I also saw a large amount of medicine and technology that is exclusively
Cuban. I believe that this exporting spirit shows the awareness of the need to
develop this field and turn it into one of the main sources of exports inasmuch
as we will not be oil exporters in the future. We have looked for it enough and
it would not be bad if a little oil was found. What I am certain of is that we
are going to be exporters of health. We are going to be exporters of years of
life. We are going to be exporters of wellness for humankind. We are not going
to be exporters of automobiles. We are not going to be exporters of some of
those sophisticated things of consumer societies but we are going to be
exporters of things man appreciates a lot, I would say of the things human
beings appreciate the most: wellness and health. We are not only going to
export years of life but years of healthy life.

4.  So, those things we saw today fill us with true enthusiasm. It also fills
us with pride by thinking that our people are capable of doing things today
that many engineers and industrialists from developed capitalist countries
admire. Many of them did not conceive or could not conceive that Cuba could do
the things it is doing. I say: That is nothing. It is nothing because this is
just the beginning. [passage omitted]

5.  A great cooperation and effort--a broad effort--can be seen. We have said
all universities need to do research.  All hospitals need to do research.
Research needs to be conducted everywhere, wherever a group of scientists meet.
We are promoting research to the maximum. It is clear that this could not have
been done 15 or 20 years ago because we did not have the personnel we have
today. We now have personnel that can give everything it is giving and a lot
more. As we have more information and more awareness of the problems, more
capabilities and the minimum necessary resources, I believe that the enormous
talent potential our country has will make an extraordinary contribution to the
development of the country. You see all kinds of things. There is a sterilizer
that does not require electricity which will be used during the special period.
There are other kinds of sterilizers.

6.  I am certain that if we continue on the same track, there will be no
product in pharmacology that we will not be able to produce. [passage omitted]

7.  They are real, notable, and promising advances and I believe we are just
beginning. Some new products are being tested. Perhaps we will be able to
distribute them to the population in the second half of the year. There are
many, many prospects and we are going to create more and more research centers.
Wherever there is a group of serious researchers, we will give them resources
and aid so that they work in what they are doing. There is nothing more
important than the human brain and what the human brain is capable of,
especially of what the human brain is capable of doing with a noble motivation,
an awareness of the value of what is being done, with love for others, with a
feeling of solidarity toward others, the people, and the world.
-END-