MINSK, 13 March (BelTA) - The Academy of Public Administration under the aegis of the President of Belarus is considering organizing internships in Cuba for its students, rector of the academy Marat Zhilinsky told journalists on 13 March, BelTA has learned.
Marat Zhilinsky met with representatives of Cuba's Higher School of State and Government Staff (Escuela Superior de Cuadros del Estado y del Gobierno) on 13 March as a follow-up to the cooperation agreement of 21 February 2017. “To date, we have been making the first steps to map out possible options of cooperation. Both Belarus and Cuba have considerable experience in staff management. We are interested in the implementation of Cuban advanced training programs for government officials. We have reached a preliminary agreement to launch exchange programs to look at this from a practical standpoint,” the rector said.
In his opinion, it will be useful for the government officials studying in the academy to visit companies and ministries to learn how to work with Cuba and Latin America, in general. “It is hard to say when these internships will take place. I do not think, however, that this will take a long time. The academy's special status is now under discussion. We will initiate long-term internships abroad for our government officials, from two to three months,” Marat Zhilinsky underlined.
Such cooperation also envisages joint research aimed at improving public management in all kinds of fields, in particular in industry.
For her part, Mercedes Delgado Fernandez, rector of the Higher School of State and Government Staff, expressed confidence that the meeting will bring good results soon. Cuba and Belarus have a lot of common points, among them the existing model of social and economic development, which prioritizes human resources. They are extremely important in terms of training professionals to run individual bodies and agencies, and also the country in general, she said.
The Cuban delegation is in Belarus on a visit till 22 March. The guests are expected to hold several meetings, give a speech at the Civil Service Institute and Belarusian State University, visit the Research Institute for Physical and Chemical Problems and the company Unitehprom BSU. The delegation may also make a study visit to Belarus' Hi-Tech Park.
Photos by Gennady Zhinkov
