In the morning of October 18, the 2nd Conference of “ ‘Belt and Road’ / South-South Cooperation Agricultural Education, Science and Technology Innovation League（BRSSCAL）& 2019 Forum of Belt and Road International Cooperation on Agriculture and Forestry Education Technology” was held in Fuzhou. Officials from Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Ministry of Commerce and Fujian Provincial Government, 155 experts and representatives from international organizations, agriculture-related universities, scientific research institutions attended the conference. Yan Jinjing, Chair of Council of FAFU and Huang Yanhe, Vice President of FAFU were present at the conference. Zheng Baodong, Vice President of FAFU, presided over the conference.
Liu Jian (Member of the Education Subcommittee of Fujian CPC Committee and Deputy Director of the Provincial Department of Education), Wang Geng (Director of International Organization Office, Foreign Economic Cooperation Center, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs), and Gu Mengyin (Deputy Director of the Department Western Asian and African Affairs, Ministry of Commerce) delivered speeches at the conference.
Recruiting ceremonies of the new members of BRSSCAL, signing ceremony of MoU and the Letter of Intent for joint construction of League platform projects between “Belt and Road” Agriculture Education, Science and Technology Innovation League and African Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) were held. The conference also witnessed four universities, including Universidade de São Paulo and Universidad de Buenos Aires, gain membership of BRSSCAL and the signing of cooperation agreement with RUFORUM consisting of 150 members. Besides, intensive and meticulous implementation is another focus of the conference which facilitated the signing of 16 letters of intent for cooperation and expanded the scope of South-South Cooperation. At the conference, Nepal Academy of Science and Technology and FAFU signed the MoU. The College of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry from Fiji National University, the College of Science and Technology from the University of Fiji and China National Engineering Research Center of JUNCAO Technology from FAFU signed the letter of intent for cooperation.
The opening ceremony was followed by keynote speeches, which were delivered by Sobhana Sivasankar (Head of Plant Breeding and Genetics Section, Joint FAO/IAEA Program), Jiang Rongfeng (Station Director of Quzhou Experimental Station of China Agricultural University), Alice Mutiti Mweetwa (Deputy Executive Secretary of RUFORUM), and Wang Miao (Directorof China-Africa Green Agriculture Development Research Center).
It is reported that the conference will last for 3 days from Oct. 17 to Oct. 19. In June last year, under the support of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce and on the initiative of China Agricultural University, the League was established with more than 70 founding members from domestic and overseas agricultural higher education institutions. The League aims to build a platform for cooperation and co-construction among agricultural and forestry universities and agricultural enterprises. The next host of the confernce will be Hainan University.