Cuban university hosts event focused on Agenda 2030

MATANZAS, Cuba, Mar 21 (ACN) Professionals from Mexico, Ecuador, Honduras, Yemen, Spain and several provinces of Cuba are taking part today at the 11th International Scientific Convention of the University of Matanzas (UM), in western Cuba, focused on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The event, known as CIUM 2023, will last until the 23rd, and will be held in person and online, as a space for sharing knowledge on science, technology and innovation results and university management, according to its official call.

Edgar Borot Peraza, UM vice rector for research and postgraduate studies and president of the organizing committee, said during the opening ceremony that higher education has an essential role to play in building more sustainable and resilient societies.

Borot Peraza, who also holds a PhD in science, commented that more than 13,000 people were trained at the university during the last two years, in different modalities, and emphasized the duty of adequately managing knowledge to contribute to socioeconomic development from the region for the country and the world.

Miriam Alpizar Santana, head of the secretariat of the Ministry of Higher Education (MES), gave a keynote lecture on the current role of universities in the fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda, and valued that in Cuba they work together with the government and civil society to respond to the main problems.

The first day of the Convention included workshops on engineering, basic and postgraduate education, ecology and agro-sustainable resources, business sciences and tourism, as well as a meeting on social sciences and socio-cultural studies.

 Approved in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development establishes a plan of action for the economic, social and environmental sustainability of the 193 member states.