Belt and Road helps China and ASEAN countries strengthen agricultural cooperation

“China and ASEAN countries each have their own advantages in agriculture, and the potential for cooperation is huge. Under the ‘Belt and Road’ framework, bilateral and multilateral agricultural cooperation and development will be vigorously advanced.” Xiao Zhongkai, deputy director of the board of directors of the All-China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, said on the 19th at the “2015 China-ASEAN Agricultural Materials Industry Summit” held in Nanning, Guangxi.

Agriculture once played an important role on the ancient Silk Road, and in the current Chinese “Belt and Road” strategy, agriculture remains an important aspect of foreign cooperation and exchange.

Xiao Zhongkai said that in the construction of the “Belt and Road,” China will further strengthen bilateral and multilateral cooperation with ASEAN countries in agricultural materials, trade in agricultural products, agricultural information exchange, agricultural technological innovation and other areas, and build new platforms for exchange and cooperation.

Zheng Yougui, a researcher at the Institute of Contemporary China Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that China and ASEAN countries each have advantages in agriculture. For example, rice produced by ASEAN countries can help China solve the problem of insufficient staple food, while China can also strengthen cooperation with ASEAN countries in fisheries, deep-sea fishing and other fields. The prospects for cooperation between the two sides in agricultural technology, machinery, trade and other areas are also very broad.

Li Dianping, president of the China-ASEAN Agricultural Materials Chamber of Commerce, believes that the “Belt and Road” strategy has brought quite good opportunities for agricultural exchange and cooperation between China and ASEAN countries, allowing each side to obtain what it needs in trade in agricultural materials and agricultural products and achieve win-win results.

It is understood that the “2015 China-ASEAN Agricultural Materials Industry Summit” is one of the series of economic and trade activities of the 12th China-ASEAN Expo. In the future, the conference will be developed into a normalized, institutionalized and branded coordination and communication platform.