China will actively engage in agricultural cooperation with Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC]members in the future, a senior official with the Ministry of Agriculture said Tuesday.
The Ministry will offer more support to cooperation projects with other APEC members, said Han Gaoju, co-chairman of the fifth Plenary Meeting of the Agricultural Technical Cooperation Working Group (ATCWG) under the APEC.
This is the first time a group of Chinese experts in major agriculture research fields have attended an ATCWG meeting and raised research topics that China is interested in, he added.
Han noted that cooperation between China and other APEC members is likely to expand into more fields, such as sustainable agriculture growth patterns, resource protection and agro-product processing.
Information, technologies, personnel and research findings can be shared among members to speed up agricultural development within the Asia and Pacific region, he said.
The plenary meeting will also include topics about agriculture biotechnology, the protection of plant and animal resources and agro-product processing, according to Keiji Kainuma, lead farmer of the ATCWG and adviser to the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
A draft ATCWG development report and an implementation report on agricultural biotechnology, which are expected to be submitted to the APEC second senior official meeting of this year next month, will also be discussed at the meeting.
About 50 delegates from 14 APEC members are attending the meeting that will end on May 17.
(Xinhua 05/15/2001)
