Minister Han Changfu met with Mr. Rubén Darío Lizarralde Montoya, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Republic of Colombia, in Beijing on June 27, 2016. The two sides exchanged views on deepening the bilateral agricultural cooperation.
Minister Han noted that China and Colombia have maintained friendly relations and enjoycomplementarities and broad prospect for cooperation in agriculture. To deepen the bilateral agricultural cooperation, Minister Han put forward a five-point proposal as below:
(1) The two sides should give full play to the role of the China-Colombia Joint Committee on Agriculture and convene a meeting at an appropriate time this year;
(2)The two sides should enhance agricultural R&D cooperation, discuss the establishment of a joint platform for tropical crop research and develop tripartite cooperation among MOA, Colombian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) ;
(3)The two sides should deepen the bilateral agricultural trade. China welcomes quality agricultural products from Colombia to China's market, and sincerely invites Colombian exhibitors to the 14th China International Agricultural Trade Fair (CATF) in November this year;
(4) The two sides should facilitate investment cooperation. China will encourage its enterprises to invest in Colombia, and provide support to Columbia in developing coffee plantations in China to demonstrate its products and technologies;
(5) The two sides should strengthen human resources development. China will provide training opportunities for Colombian senior officials, technicians and corporate executives, and dispatch its senior agricultural consultants to Colombia for agricultural planning and policy development.
Mr. Lizarralde agreed with Minister Han on his proposal and expressed his appreciation for China's sustained support to Colombia's economic development. He stressed that the Colombian side highly values the practical cooperation with China and is ready to expand agricultural trade, promote joint research and investment, and increase personnel exchanges in agriculture.