Vice Minister Qu Dongyu met with Mr. Mamadou Sangafowa Coulibaly, Minister of Agriculture & Rural Development of the Republic of C？te d'Ivoire, in Beijing on July 20, 2016. The two sides exchanged views on promoting the bilateral agricultural cooperation in an all-round way.
Vice Minister Qu spoke highly of the bilateral cooperation in the areas of tropical agro-technology exchanges, human resource development & personnel training, and agricultural investment & trade under the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). To further deepen the bilateral agricultural cooperation, Vice Minister Qu put forward a five-point proposal in the following areas:
(1) Jointly implement the China-Africa cooperation plan for agricultural modernization and other related initiatives that the Chinese President Xi Jinping announced at the FOCAC Johannesburg Summit;
(2) Intensify cooperation in cashew, cocoa, rice and other tropical crops production and processing;
(3) Enhance cooperation in personnel training;
(4) Invite C？te d'Ivoire's enterprises to the 14th China International Agricultural Trade Fair (CATF) to be held in Kunming, China in November this year;
(5) Encourage eligible Chinese enterprises to conduct investment cooperation with C？te d'Ivoire in farm machinery and agricultural product processing.
Mr. Mamadou Sangafowa Coulibaly fully agreed with Vice Minister Qu on his comments and proposal for bilateral agricultural cooperation. He also expressed thanks to China for its assistance and support in C？te d'Ivoire's agricultural development, hoping to further upgrade bilateral agricultural cooperation.