On September 21-24, Vice Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Zhang Taolin, paid a successful visit to Australia. During his visit, Vice Minister Zhang and his delegation held meetings with officials of Australian Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, Western Australia State government and Queensland State government. They exchanged views on strengthening agricultural cooperation, and reached extensive consensus.
In his meeting with David Parker, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, Vice Minister Zhang indicated that agriculture comprises an important part of China-Australia relation, with a well-developed cooperation mechanism, covering a widerange of area. The two sides also enjoy a rapid growth of agricultural trade and a sound momentum in agricultural investment cooperation. The Chinese side is willing to work with the Australian side in materializing the consensus reached between the heads of state of the two countries in the field of agriculture and the Joint Framework on Expanding Cooperation Area between the two agricultural authorities, and carry out extensive cooperation in the field of agricultural science and technology, agricultural investment, agricultural trade, etc.
Deputy Secretary David Parker extended a warm welcome to Vice Minister Zhang and his delegation. He noted that the agricultural authorities of the two countries have maintained good cooperation, and the Joint Framework on Expanding Cooperation Area responds to the needs of both sides, which will effectively guide the bilateral cooperation. He hopes that more Chinese enterprises will come to Australia for technical exchanges and economic cooperation. The Australian host also introduced the development and status-quo of the agricultural sector in Australia, commonwealth fisheries policy and management measures, land conservation and sustainable agricultural development policies, etc.
During his visit in Western Australia, Vice Minister Zhang held a meeting with Premier Colin Barnett. The WA Premier welcome the agricultural investment of the Chinese side in his state to jointly develop the market of Asia. Western Australia is currently promoting live cattle export program, and the participation of Chinese enterprises is welcome. The northern part of Western Australia is implementing irrigation and agricultural development program, where Chinese enterprises have already conducted investment, and won local respect and support. Milestone of progress has been achieved, which has blazed a broad pathway for more Chinese investment that are expected. There's also a solid basis of agricultural R&D cooperation between Western Australia and China, which is expected to further expand.
Vice Minister Zhang indicated that good cooperation is witnessed in all sectors with Australia. As a major agricultural state, Western Australia enjoys a great potential for cooperation with China in the field of agriculture. This visit confirmed the positive message of Western Australia in cooperation with the Chinese side. There's already a good start of cooperation. The Chinese side is willing to cooperate with Western Australia in improving relevant policies and environment for the cooperation, creating vectors and platforms, and demonstrate and push forward the agricultural cooperation across the industrial chain including production, research & development, processing, finance, etc. to capitalize the complementarity between the two sides.
In the meeting with Leanne Donaldson, Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries of Queensland, the two sides exchanged views on enhancing cooperation in agricultural processing, agricultural investment, agricultural research, personnel training and education, etc. Both sides showed the willingness to further cooperation.
During his stay in Australia, Vice Minister Zhang visited cattle farms and sheep farms, aquatic product processing companies, vegetable production and processing plants in Western Australia, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology, Food Science Laboratory, to learn the latest development of Australian agriculture, and the comments and suggestions from farmers, agri-business and experts on strengthening cooperation. He also talked with Chinese business leaders who are investing in Australia and local Australian Chinese to solicit their comments and ideas on agricultural investment and cooperation in Australia.