Japanese ambassador visits eastern Cuba

BAYAMO, Cuba, Feb 8 (ACN) As part of a solidarity and economic exchange visit to the province of Granma, His Excellency Mr. Hirata Kenji, Japan's ambassador to Cuba, toured today health care centers in this city of eastern Cuba, where he learned about the benefits of the Japanese donations to a local clinical-surgical hospital.

Mr. Hirata will also meet with rice farmers and visit the National Monument-Park La Demajagua, in the place where the Cuban independence war started on October 10, 1868 under the leadership of the patriot Carlos Manuel de Céspedes.

Idel Marrero Martínez, director of the agribusiness enterprise José Manuel Capote Sosa, thanked Mr. Hirata for the machinery received from Japan, which helped increase rice yields for the benefit of about 1,100 producers.

“It is only natural that we support the cultivation of the basic cereal of the Japanese culture,” said the Ambassador, who announced future contributions to Cuban community-based projects for the processing of agricultural goods.