Trade union leaders from Cuba and China advocate closer cooperation

The secretary-general of the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC, the only legal union), Ulises Guilarte, and his Chinese counterpart, Li Yufu, pleaded today during a meeting in Havana promote greater links and collaboration in areas of common interest, local media reported.

Havana, Nov 13 (EFE) .- The general secretary of the Cuban Workers' Union (CTC, the only legal union), Ulises Guilarte, and his Chinese counterpart, Li Yufu, pleaded today during a meeting in Havana to promote greater ties and collaboration in areas of common interest, reported local media.

During the meeting, the secretary general of the Federation National Union of Trade Unions of China (ACFTU), Li Yufu, gave the Cuban CTC a donation of 100,000 euros (equivalent to 116,663 dollars) destined to the recovery of the island by the numerous damages that the scourge of Hurricane Irma left last September.

The Cuban trade union leader thanked the Chinese authorities for their solidarity and financial contribution to Cuba and highlighted the "high level" of the historical relations between both nations, according to the digital newspaper Trabajadores, official organ of the CTC.

Guilarte also told the directors Chinese trade unions that their visit creates new opportunities for collaboration in areas of common interest, such as the electro-energy sector, agriculture, the pharmaceutical industry and biotechnology or transport.

And as a future project, the secretary of the CTC proposed to his counterpart to create a theoretical forum to share experiences about updating the Cuban socio-economic model and the opening of the economy in China.

For his part, Li Yufu invited his Cuban counterpart to visit China in the first half of 2018 so that he can note the progress of socialism in the Asian country, according to "its peculiarities" and the premise of erecting a "modestly well-off" society.

The leader of the ACFTU-only trade union association of China and the largest in the world with nearly 300 million members- makes a working visit to the Caribbean country accompanied by a delegation composed of five other representatives of the federation.

Cuba and China maintain close political and economic relations, in which the Asian country stands out as one of the main allies, and in the 2016 became the first commercial partner of the Caribbean island with an exchange of more than 2.585 million dollars.