UB President Professor Emeritus Clement Sankat accompanied by the Dean of the Faculty of Education and Arts, Dr. Nestor Chan; Dean of the Faculty of Nursing, Allied Health and Social Work, Ms. Leolin Castillo; Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology, Ms. Julianne Pasos; Dean of Student Affairs, Dr. Jean Perriott; Director of Environmental Research Institute, Dr. Elma Kay; Director of Regional Language Center (RLC) Mr. Jhon Florez; and Special Assistant, Inter-institutional Collaboration, International Programs, Mr. Ewart Robateau attended the Third Belize-Mexico Binational Seminar entitled “Cooperation on Health Mexico-Belize” in Chetumal, Mexico on October 4, 2017. The President delivered welcome remarks and applauded Ambassador Carlos Quesnel Melendez, Ambassador of the Embassy of Mexico in Belize, for his dedication in bringing the universities of both countries to work together for their respective good. The President indicated that we have seen the tremendous challenges associated with globalization, migration, climate change and health for example and to treat with today’s problems requires bilateral and multilateral responses, and hence he was very pleased to see this occurring at the seminar as the spread of diseases, that we are witnessing today, sees no national boundaries.
The bi-national seminar is a partnership among the University of Belize, the University of Quintana Roo (UQROO), and El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) Unidad Chetumal and the Embassy of Mexico in Belize. Mr. Jhon Florez, RLC Director, has been a key driver in this partnership. The seminar is being held from October 4-6, 2017 and Professor Clement Sankat will be delivering the closing remarks today.
While in Chetumal and at the seminar, Professor Sankat also attended a bi-lateral meeting among institutions from Belize and Mexico. The meeting was attended by leaders of UB, UQROO and ECOSUR; the Minister of State in the Ministry of Health Hon. Angel Campos; Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in the Ministry of Health Dr. Ramon Figueroa; CEO in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Patrick Andrews; health representatives from the federal and state level in Mexico; and representatives from Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). The meeting included discussions on strengthening UB to deliver more relevant programs in health education and research through this partnership. More areas of collaborative interest include Natural Resources management/sustainable development training at the Master’s level and research, teacher training and development at the graduate level, bi-lateral staff exchanges, and staff development with scholarships available from the CONACYT (Mexican National Council of Science and Technology) in Mexico City, student exchanges etc. Architects from UQROO were the developers of the master plan for the Belmopan Campus, therefore another key area discussed was their continued support in the physical redevelopment of UB.
