Vice Minister of Agriculture and CAAS President Li Jiayang paid an official visit to Australia and Indonesia, and attended an international conference on life sciences in Singapore from February 25 to March 3.
During his visit to the University of Sydney, Li exchanged views with Principal Executive Officer Dr. Michael Spence on broadening pragmatic cooperation in agricultural environment protection and veterinary science. Both sides agreed to conduct joint post-graduate training courses in the near future. Then Li attended the unveiling ceremony of "China-Australia Joint Laboratory for Sustainable Agro-ecosystems", a program co-sponsored by CAAS and the University.
At the high-level meetings in the University of Western Australia and Murdoch University, the Chinese delegation discussed the establishment of partnership in joint research and capacity building, and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Western Australia, outlining a specific scheme to enhance bilateral cooperation.
Later, the Chinese delegation held panel discussions with Australian counterparts from key academic fields, to explore collaboration potentials in scientific study and technological innovation. CAAS and Murdoch University laid down a cooperation framework and put priorities on wheat variety improvement and veterinary science. The University of Western Australia also expressed their intention of cooperation in crop breeding, bee keeping and joint research on quality standard establishment.
During the trip in Indonesia, the delegation met with Mr.Haryono,head of Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Research and Development(IARRD), and signed a letter of intent on promoting collaboration in veterinary biotechnology, germplasm exchange, capacity building, and so on.
The last stop of Li's trip was Singapore, where he attended the "International Conference on Next Generation Genomic View on Plants, Animals and Microbes", and made a keynote speech Foxtail millet: an emerging model for genomic and genetic studies in staple crops.
Representatives of the Chinese Embassies to Australia and Indonesia, and delegates from Department of Research Management, Department of International Cooperation, Institute of Crop Sciences and Shanghai Veterinary Research Institute under CAAS participated in the above activities.
unveiling ceremony of China-Australia Joint Laboratory for Sustainable Agro-ecosystems
Signing Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Western Australia