On July 13, H.E. Jorge Luis Tapia, Deputy Prime Minister of Cuba, led a delegation to the Institute of Vegetables and Flowers of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (IVF-CAAS), accompanied by Prof. Sun Tan, Vice President of the CAAS, Prof. Kou Zhanying, Secretary of the Party Committee of IVF, and Prof. Zhang Shengping, Deputy Director of IVF.

The delegation visited the display greenhouse in the southern area of IVF-CAAS, where Prof. Zhang Shengping introduced the basic information of IVF-CAAS and proposed three aspects of cooperation: the promotion of variety and technology, the establishment of a joint laboratory, and the joint cultivation of graduate students.

Accompanied by Prof. Kou Zhanying, the delegation visited the flower variety and resource display area. Professor Yang Shuhua gave a detailed introduction of the cultivation of flower varieties and the development of derived products to the delegation.

In the leafy vegetable variety and resource display area, Professor Li Zhansheng reported on the characteristics of various varieties and the current status of the germplasm resources utilization.

Under the introduction of Professor Wang Haiping, the delegation visited the National Vegetable Germplasm Resource Mid-term Storage Facility.

During the visit, H.E. Jorge Luis Tapia showed great interest in Professor Xu Jianfei’s report about potato cultivation and discussed potato production technology.

Professor Wang Xiaowu, Director of the National Key Laboratory of Vegetable Biotechnology, introduced to the the delegation about the biotechnology research room and the intelligent molecular breeding platform.

Prof. Sun Tan welcomed the visit of Deputy Prime Minister and his delegation. He looks forward to the exchanges on a larger scale, in a broader field, and at a deeper level, continuously deepening the cooperation under the "Belt and Road" initiative, and jointly promoting new developments in China-Cuban agriculture.

H.E. Jorge Luis Tapia highly praised the strong scientific research capabilities and outstanding achievements of IVF-CAAS. He expressed his willingness to actively promote the construction of the joint laboratory and hoped that both sides could carry out pragmatic cooperation in the fields of new vegetable and flower varieties and technologies, achieving complementary advantages, resource sharing, and shared development. He also warmly invited leaders and experts from the CAAS to visit and exchange in Cuba.

By Congying Li

（licongying@caas.cn）