Vice Minister Zhang Taolin met Indonesian Minister of Agriculture Amran Sulaiman in Jakarta, Indonesia on Sept. 19, 2016. The two sides exchanged views on strengthening the bilateral agricultural cooperation.
Vice Minister Zhang noted that, since the bilateral relations was upgraded to a comprehensive strategic partnership from a strategic partnership in 2013, China-Indonesia pragmatic cooperation has been furthered in an all-round manner. Agricultural cooperation is an important component of the bilateral relations. The two sides have established the mechanism of Joint Committee on Agriculture and conducted cooperation in a wide range of areas, including S&T exchanges, technology demonstration, agricultural trade and investment and international food and agriculture affairs. There is still a great potential for bilateral agricultural cooperation.
To this end, Vice Minister Zhang suggested that the two sides cooperate in the following areas:
(1) Giving full play to the role of China-Indonesia Joint Committee on Agriculture to discuss and advance cooperation projects of common interests;
(2) Jointly working out the direction and priorities for the bilateral agricultural cooperation and identifying the areas of strength; and
(3) Fostering an enabling environment and creating platforms for cooperation, including agricultural parks and bases.
The Indonesian Agricultural Minister extended a warm welcome to the Chinese delegation and agreed with Vice Minister Zhang. He stated that Indonesia attaches great importance to the agricultural cooperation with China and suggested cooperationin the following areas:
(1) Enhancing cooperation in agricultural investment. Indonesia will appropriate 200 hectares of land for livestock, corn and sugar cane production, and is looking forward to intergovernmental cooperation with China in establishment of agricultural parks. China-Indonesia Joint Committee on Agriculture is expected to meet at an early date to discuss specific cooperative projects.
(2) Expanding agricultural trade. The demand for corn, beef and sugar is high in Indonesia and China's export to Indonesia is welcomed in this regard. At the same time, Indonesia also hopes that China will increase import of its fruit.
(3) Increasing agricultural S&T exchanges and enhancing cooperation in personnel training.