On April 19, 2016, Li Jiayang, Vice Minister of Agriculture, President of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences met with the delegation led by Mr. Phil Hogan, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, European Commission. Both sides exchanged views on deepening cooperation in agricultural research and innovation.

Li Jiayang positively remarked the fruitful outcomes achieved from the long-time cooperation between CAAS and EU member states. He pointed out that the EU-CAAS partnership became more and more consolidated since the signature of the letter of intent on research and innovation between CAAS and European Commission. He also emphasized that there is a big potential in the agricultural research and innovation between CAAS and European countries, and both sides have a lot of common interests in this area. Li Jiayang suggested that based on the previous excellent cooperation, both sides should enhance the construction of joint labs/centers and carry out the concrete collaborations in the fields of biotechnology, information technology, sustainable agriculture. He also suggested that the role of EU-China Food, Agriculture and Biotechnology Task Force should be continued to be strengthened and upgraded as the bridge between the two sides, and as the think tank for supporting our collaboration and providing policy advices for EU-China agricultural S&T cooperation. Finally, Li Jiayang concluded that the both sides would enhance the role of agricultural S&T partnership in the EU-China relationship.

Phil Hogan fully agreed on the suggestions of Li Jiayang. He said that EU pays great importance on the cooperation with China in the field of agricultural research and innovation and hoped that both sides would jointly explore the potential collaboration areas including animal health and organic agro-products in the future.
 

 

By Liu Wenbo
liuwenbo@caas.cn