Cuba Calls for World Cooperation at Portugal´s Communications Forum

HAVANA, Cuba, April 21 (acn) Cuba is defending the setting up of preferential telephone tariffs for underdeveloped nations at the International Forum on Telecommunications, underway in Lisbon, Portugal.

The Cuban proposal is aimed at supporting Third World nations, particularly those affected by the global economic crisis, in their infrastructure modernization efforts on the basis of their own
telecommunications services.

During the meeting, public officials, leaders and experts in the sector will focus on ways to cushion the effects of the current financial situation.

Cuban representatives at the Lisbon gathering will also call for closing the gap standing between industrialized and underdeveloped nations as to the access to information technologies and databases.

Cuban delegation member to the forum, Juan Fernandez, said that his country will ask the International Telecommunications Union to demand that developed countries should meet their commitment of contributing 0,7 percent of their Gross Domestic Product to the Official Assistance for Development.

The assistance for development must be contributed without any conditioning and by respecting national priorities and strategies for development drawn up in each country, according to the Cuban proposal, which also adds that the international body must guarantee that favored
nations use part of the assistance for the development of communications, so crucial for modern life.

During the Lisbon meeting, which runs until next April 24, Cuba will denounce Washington’s discriminatory actions that ban the island Internet connection and access to public Websites, a measure linked to the nearly-50-year US economic, financial and commercial blockade of the
Caribbean nation.

Participants will hear the island´s demand for equality in Internet access for all nations and the proposal that the International Telecommunications Rules include the prohibition of discriminatory measures as a compulsory requirement for all states and enterprises
around the world, said Pedro Oliva, member of the Cuban delegation to the forum.

In statements to the Cuban News Agency, Oliva said that the International Telecommunications Union declared such proceedings as illicit, during a recent forum on standardization. Participants at that meeting adopted a resolution expressing that such a policy denies the right of the states
to using the Internet resources, which are practically essential in today´s world.

Studies published by the media explain that the Internet band width allowed to Cuba by the United States is only as large as any being used by a single enterprise, or even similar to those owned private users who count on that resource in other parts of the world.

Meanwhile, Cuba undergoes Internet access limitations imposed by the US, which include services so basic as Google applications like Google Toolbar, Google Desktop and others, as well as public software programs, and other resources. Downloading such programs or resources from Cuba would receive the permanent message reading: “Thanks for your interest,
but the product that you're trying to download is not available in your country.”

(Aboga Cuba por colaboración internacional en comunicaciones)