Vice Minister Qu Dongyu meets Minister of Small Business Owners, SMEs, the Self-Employed, Agriculture and Social Integration of Belgium
DATE:2016-04-06 SOURCE:MOA
Vice Minister Qu Dongyu met with Willy Borsus, Minister of Small Business Owners, SMEs, the Self-Employed, Agriculture and Social Integration of Belgium in Brussels on April 1, 2016. The two sides exchanged views on strengthening China-Belgium agricultural cooperation.
Qu noted that China and Belgium are highly complementary to each other in agriculture and have great potential for cooperation. In recent years the bilateral agricultural cooperation has been developing rapidly, with remarkable outcomes in agricultural research cooperation. Qu made a four-point proposal on promoting the bilateral agricultural cooperation: first, build a cooperation mechanism and set up a working group on agricultural cooperation; second, focus on the joint laboratory and intensify agricultural research cooperation; third, enhance animal health cooperation; fourth, carry out demonstrative cooperation to lead the integration of the first, secondary and tertiary industries.
Willy Borsus fully agreed with Qu's proposal and expressed his willingness to work with China to strengthen the bilateral cooperation in prioritized areas such as agro-product quality and safety, animal and plant health, and further expand agricultural trade.
After the meeting, the two sides signed the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Agriculture of the People''s Republic of China and the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain and the Veterinary and Agrochemical Research Centre of the Kingdom of Belgium on Strengthening the bilateral agricultural cooperation in the fields of Quality and Safety of Agricultural Products, Animal Health and plant Health. During his stay in Belgium, Vice Minister Qu also took a field trip to study the local family animal farms as well as other aspects of the local agricultural and rural development. Chinese Ambassador to Belgium Qu Xing also attended those events.