Mr. Qu Dongyu, Vice Minister of Agriculture, met with Bill Gates, Co-Chair and Trustee of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (the Gates Foundation), in Beijing on 24 March 2017. The two sides exchanged views candidly on strengthening pragmatic agricultural cooperation and promoting agricultural development in Africa.
Qu welcomed Gates' visit to the MOA and appreciated the Gates Foundation's efforts to boost agricultural development in developing countries in Africa and South Asia. He noted that in recent years, the Gates Foundation has made remarkable achievements in joint agricultural research projects in China, and the common aspiration to help with and promote agricultural development in Africa remains the solid foundation for cooperation between the MOA and the Gates Foundation.
For further agricultural cooperation, Qu put forward three proposals as follows: firstly, the two sides launch pilot projects of agricultural cooperation in one or two African countries to generate experience and scale up cooperation; secondly, the two sides prioritize cooperation in areas of agricultural scientific research, extension and application of small and medium sized farm implements, and prevention and control of plant and animal diseases; thirdly, cooperation projects between the Gates Foundation and research institutes directly under the MOA be explored to provide African countries with more agricultural development options and technology support.
Gates fully agreed with Qu and said that China, with amazing progress in its own agricultural development and poverty reduction and alleviation, is playing an increasingly prominent role in supporting agricultural development in other developing countries. The Gates Foundation highly values agricultural cooperation with the MOA and hopes that the two sides, through pragmatic and innovative cooperation, could contribute to improving lives of the impoverished people in developing countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.
After the meeting, the two sides signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Strengthening Agricultural Cooperation between the Ministry of Agriculture of China and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.