JNN 9 May 2013 Brasilia :  Brazil plans to hire 6,000 Cuban doctors to serve in remote parts of the country where medical services are deficient or nonexistent, despite controversy over the quality of their training.

The Brazilian foreign minister, Antonio Patriota, said negotiations were under way involving the Washington-based Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) to allow the Cuban doctors to practice in Brazil.

Most Brazilian doctors are concentrated in the country’s bigger cities, leaving remote areas badly covered.

Brazilian medical associations have opposed Cuban-trained doctors practicing in their country, arguing that standards at Cuba’s medical schools are lower than in Brazil and equivalent in some cases to a nursing education.

Over the past decade Cuba’s communist government has sent 30,000 doctors to work in poor neighbourhoods of Venezuela, Havana’s closest political ally in Latin America, under an agreement reached with the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez that involved an exchange of medical services for cheap oil.

There was no deadline yet for the doctors’ arrival in Brazil, Mr Patriota told reporters after meeting his Cuban counterpart, Bruno Rodriguez, in the Cuban capital.

The Cubans are expected to be sent to poor corners of the northeast of Brazil and the Amazon jungle, where Brazilian doctors are reluctant to serve.

“Cuba is very proficient in the areas of medicine, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology and Brazil is considering receiving Cuban doctors in talks that involve PAHO,” Patriota said at a news conference with the Cuban foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez.

The Federal Council of Medicine, a body that represents doctors in Brazil, said the proposal was “irresponsible” as the Cuban doctors’ “technical and ethical quality was in doubt”. It issued a statement demanding foreign doctors be recertified in Brazil before being allowed to practice.

The talks with Cuba were initiated by President Dilma Rousseff in January last year, during her visit to Havana.

At the time, Ms Rousseff also spoke about joint production of medicine, another topic mentioned by Mr Patriota on Monday.

“Cuba is very proficient in the areas of medicine, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology and Brazil is considering receiving around 6,000 Cubans doctors or a little more,” said the Brazilian Foreign minister.

Patriota said the plan would strengthen ties between Havana and Brasília that have expanded since the leftist Worker’s party came to power a decade ago.

On Monday, Brazil’s trade minister Fernando Pimentel signed an agreement in Havana setting conditions for a $176m (£113m) loan from its giant development bank BNDES to upgrade and expand the airports of Havana, Santa Clara, Holguín, Cayo Coco and Cayo Largo.

Both countries also discussed infrastructure projects in Cuba “such as the Mariel port, and also the refurbishment of the airports in Havana and Santiago, which will also be financed by Brazil,” Mr Patriota said.

Cuban authorities say Brazil is its sixth biggest trading partner and main food supplier.

Bilateral trade between the two countries reached a record $661m last year, up 6% on 2011.