April 16th, Vice President Wu Kongming met Mr. Laurent Thomas, FAO Assistant Director General, along with his colleagues, Mr. Percy Misika, FAO Representative in China, Mongolia and DPRK, to exchanged views on how to strengthen mutual collaboration under the framework of South-South Cooperation (SSC).

2015 is the final year for China’s 12th five year plan, but also it marks the beginning of the implementation of the 13th five year plan. So both sides use this event to discuss mode of further collaboration that will be in line with the new work plan of 13th five year plan.

Wu introduced that agricultural production in China still highly relies on small scale farmers, however, farmers are doing integrated farming that use both traditional and modern agricultural technologies. He continued by mentioning China’s achievements in the advanced technology in agricultural, whereby CAAS has reached a higher research level in regards to new crop species breeding, animal diseases control, integrated pest management, new energy utilization in rural area, etc. He pointed out explicitly that CAAS is willing to share the experience with developing countries, since CAAS is the national research academy and it has strong team of experts which are willing to provide technical support and training for developing countries.

He said, “FAO enjoys a high reputation in the area of global agricultural policy’s making and agricultural information sharing hence, the collaboration between CAAS and FAO will provide demanding-oriented policy consultation, technical support and specialized knowledge”. He argues that, “both sides should strengthen the communication and identify research area to be prioritized to ensure maximum utilization of the collaboration under the framework of SSC.”

Mr. Thomas agreed with Dr. Wu’s point of view and stress on how the collaboration should work for mutual benefit. He presented his gratitude of appreciation on the role CAAS played in SSC, especially in the capacity building and technology transfer which provided strong support for developing countries.