Cyprus News Agency: News in English, 10-09-20

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From: The Cyprus News Agency at <http://www.cyna.org.cy>

CONTENTS

[01] PRESIDENT - UN MEETING

[02] CYPRUS - SYRIA - SPEAKERS - MEETING

[01] PRESIDENT - UN MEETING

Addressing Monday the UN High Level Plenary Meeting in New York on the challenge of poverty, hunger and gender equality, the President stressed that it is crucially important to address these issues in order to reach the Millennium Development Goals.

We have been generous with words which however we have not matched with deeds, he said, adding that the current global economic slowdown had a significant impact on efforts to fight hunger and poverty and that in the five remaining years governments must make up for lost ground.

Referring to the issue of hunger, he said that the number of people going to bed hungry every night is growing, quoting estimates which predict that the number of people living in extreme poverty could increase by 100 million.

He also spoke of how poverty is affecting women, noting that the vast majority of the worlds poor are women leading to child mortality and malnutrition, whilst at the same time women count for about two-thirds of the worlds illiterates and girls represent the overwhelming majority among the millions of school age children not attending school.

Cyprus Aid, the Development Cooperation Service of Cyprus, is committed to supporting NGOs directly engaged in projects which benefit children and women, he said, adding that Cyprus and Cyprus-based NGOs also support developing country initiatives aimed specifically at gender equality.

President Christofias furthermore expressed Cyprus commitment to providing additional and innovative financial resources within the context of the UN Joint Action Plan for Womens and Childrens health.

[02] CYPRUS - SYRIA - SPEAKERS - MEETING

The Cyprus House President is paying a two-day official visit to Syria at the invitation of the Speaker of the Syrian Parliament.

Garoyian and Al Abrash held on Monday in Damascus a meeting during which they discussed the Cyprus problem, the situation in the Middle East, international issues and mainly bilateral relations.

``We have agreed that we will intensify our parliamentary relations. Twice a year we will be having these exchange visits at the highest level between friendship committees of the Cyprus and the Syrian Parliaments and exchange visits of experts of our parliaments``, Garoyian said in statements after the meeting.

On his part, Al Abrash said that relations between the two countries are very old and strong, and that their goal is to maintain these relations.

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