Mr. Han Changfu, Chinese Minister of Agriculture and Dr. Pamela Anderson, CIP's Director General, together with CAAS president Dr. Huqu Zhai and vice president Dr. Huajun Tang gathered on February 4 2010 in a formal signing ceremony to launch the CIP-China Center for Asia and the Pacific (CCCAP). Located in Beijing, the Center will host an international array of scientists and scholars dedicated to potato and sweet potato research. Their focus will be on advancing ways these crops can more fully contribute to food security and income generation in China and the greater Asia-Pacific region.

China and CIP signed the S&T Cooperative Agreement in 1985. For the past 25 years, remarkable progress has been in three key areas: The first includes improvements in potato and sweet potato germplasm and breeding materials; integrated pest management and post-harvest processing and utilization. The second involves significant social and economic benefits from the CIP materials and technologies. And the third involves a wealth of training which has helped form some of our country’s leading potato and sweet potato scientists.