Belt and Road agricultural forum held to boost high-quality cooperation, expand common benefits

The 2023 Belt and Road Agricultural Cooperation and Development Forum was held in Beijing Thursday, with participants sharing experiences and exchanging insights on high-quality cooperation as well as sustainable development path in the future.

A traditionally hot area for exchanges and trade, agricultural cooperation has been further strengthened under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), yielding fruitful results worldwide.

For the past ten years since the BRI was proposed, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) has worked with Belt and Road partners in a series of cooperation projects focusing on building platforms, expanding trade, promoting investment, and strengthening capabilities to benefit people's livelihood and enhance friendship and will further consolidate mechanism and strengthen dialogues, technology sharing and people-to-people exchanges to expand Belt and Road economic and trade cooperation in agriculture, Ma Youxiang, Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said in his speech when addressing the forum.

Xinhua News Agency has been closely following Belt and Road agricultural cooperation and contributed to such international cooperation through its own capabilities in terms of communication, think tank research and brand building support, said Ren Weidong, Deputy Editor-in-chief of Xinhua News Agency.

The agricultural cooperation between China and Africa have promoted infrastructure construction and boosted experience sharing, which contributes to the sustainable development of agriculture in Africa, said Rahmat Allah Mohamed Osman, permanent representative of the African Union Representative Office in China.

In terms of financial services, the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) has established relationships with nearly 500 banks in Belt and Road countries to provide high-quality and efficient cross-border financial services for agricultural trade and investment, said ABC President Fu Wanjun.

Themed on "expanding common benefits in Belt and Road agricultural cooperation", the forum also included sessions for experience sharing on topics such as industrial and supply chain building, sustainable development and people-to-people bond.

The event is held by Department of International Cooperation with the MARA together with China Economic Information Service (CEIS) and ABC, under the guidance of the MARA and Xinhua News Agency.