On June 22, China Agricultural University (CAU) held the Inaugural Meeting of Belt and Road & South-South Cooperation Agricultural Education, Science and Technology Innovation League & Forum on Belt and Road and China-Africa Cooperation Agricultural Economy Policy 2018. At the Conference, CAU Party Committee Secretary Jiang Peimin announced the founding of “Belt and Road & South-South Cooperation Agricultural Education, Science and Technology Innovation League”, which is the largest cooperation platform for all-around agricultural education, science, and technology in China and beyond. The founding members of the League are CAU, Northwest A&F University, and other 40 Chinese institutions of higher learning in agriculture and forestry, as well as 30 institutions of higher learning along Belt and Road including Kyrgyz National Agrarian University and Hebrew University of Jerusalem, among others. There were 200 attendees including Chinese and overseas university presidents and other delegates.

In his speech, CAU President Sun Qixing pointed out that the League would highlight the themes of resource complementarity, practical cooperation, joint promotion, people’s livelihood improvement, cultural communication, and green and sustainable development, aim at comprehensive people’s well-being development, and the advancement of agricultural industry. Priority would be given to cooperation of Chinese academic institutions in agriculture and forestry with the corresponding institutions in the countries along Belt and Road Belt and those in the countries of South-South Cooperation for the construction of overseas centers for science and technology cooperation and technological pilot bases, thereby establishing several practical, influential, and sustainable “Belt and Road & South-South Cooperation” agricultural development brand centers and bases, serving the Chinese agricultural enterprises going global, facilitating local agricultural development, and significantly advancing “Belt and Road & South-South Cooperation” agricultural development and people’s well-being improvement.

On behalf of 70 Chinese and overseas League member institutions, Secretary Jiang announced the Constitution of the League, which stated that the League has four major commitments: to promote talent cultivation and share educational resources, to jointly advance agricultural science and technology innovation, to share the experiences of agricultural science, technology, and development among China and the overseas countries concerned, and to facilitate the agricultural policy dialogue and communication, respectively. In order to implement of these commitments, the League discussed and approved the Action Plan, in which the tasks of the League in the following five years were specified so as to boost the advantageous complementarity of the domestic and overseas member institutions and enhance the close cooperation among the members in the areas such as talent cultivation, cultural communication, scientific and technological research, technical application, and policy dialogue in agricultural industry.

        As the institution with general-secretary status, CAU is responsible for the League Standing Council’s work of daily liaison and organization. With the support of other Chinese academic institutions in agriculture and forestry, CAU will greatly promote agricultural cooperation with the countries along Belt and Road and actively participate in the South-South Cooperation. CAU established China’s first “Belt and Road Institute for Agricultural Cooperation”, “China Institute for South-South Cooperation in Agriculture” in cooperation with Northwest A&F University, “China-Trinidad and Tobago Agricultural Innovation Park” in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, rural poverty relief learning center and China-Tanzania joint research center in Tanzania, and “China-Thailand Research Center for Agricultural and Food Science and Technology” in cooperation with Kasetsart University, and played a key role in the establishment and further development of Malawi University of Science and Technology. In March of this year, CAU organized and established “Belt and Road Animal Science and Technology Innovation League” which is a platform for industry, education, and research cooperation in animal science and technology joined by the animal science or husbandry schools of 44 Chinese and overseas universities in agriculture and forestry and 20 animal feed and husbandry enterprises. Recently, CAU and the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation signed a Memorandum of Understanding. With the support of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation, CAU will advance the global rural and agricultural sustainable development and international poverty relieving.

At the conference, bilateral or multilateral cooperation agreements between or among China Agricultural University, Tarim University, Kyrgyz National Agrarian University, Hainan University, Royal University of Agriculture, Cambodia, Agricultural University of Tirana, Albania, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest, Romania, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Poland, Jilin Agricultural University, and University of Tirana, Albania. Those universities will jointly establish the centers for agricultural education, science, and technology cooperation and innovation and plan to further enlarge the construction of pilot parks based on the cooperation centers with potential for development.

 The leaders who made speeches at the conference were Ma Aiguo, member of the leading group of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Deputy Director Tang Shengyao of Department of International Cooperation of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Councilor Tao Hongjian of Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges of Ministry of Education, Deputy Director Liu Mingzhe of Institute of Training for International Commercial Officials of Ministry of Commerce. They expressed their congratulations to the founding of the League and their encouragement and support to the League’s work on cooperation centers, talent cultivation programs, scientific and technological promotion and application projects in the future.

        After the inaugural meeting, keynote speeches were respectively made by Director Song Hongyuan of Research Center for Rural Economy of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and Director Li Xiaoyun of “China Belt and Road Institute for Agricultural Cooperation” and “China Institute for South-South Cooperation in Agriculture” of China Agricultural University. They reviewed the achievements of rural reform in the past 40 years in China and introduced the practice of China agricultural development experience in Tanzania.

        In the two days of conference, the experts and scholars also participated the interactive discussions and cooperation negotiations in terms of the opportunities and challenges of agricultural universities under the South-South Cooperation and Belt and Road Imitative. The presidents of 30 overseas universities attending the conference would also visit the related schools of CAU to further discuss the detailed cooperation and joint work.

　The inaugural meeting was chaired by CAU Vice President Gong Yuanshi. The attendees were from the government sectors in China and overseas countries, 40 Chinese institutions of higher learning in agriculture and forestry, and 30 key agricultural universities in 28 countries along Belt and Road and countries of South-South Cooperation.