— Wang Jiarui, Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, talks about the achievements of the China-Africa Agriculture Cooperation Forum

The China-Africa Agriculture Cooperation Forum, hosted by the International Department of the CPC Central Committee and the China's Ministry of Agriculture, successfully wound up in Beijing on August 12. Wang Jiarui, Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, talked to the People's Daily about the Forum's achievements and how the Communist Party of China helped promote foreign exchanges and practical bilateral and multilateral cooperation.

People's Daily: China and Africa agreed the China-Africa Agriculture Cooperation Forum was a complete success. What was the basic situation of the meeting?

Wang Jiarui: It was the first collective dialogue through party-to-party channels under the China-African framework on agricultural cooperation. The Central Government attached great importance to this forum. Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, also Standing Committee Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, met African delegates to the forum. Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, also Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, attended the forum and made a keynote speech at the closing ceremony. Hui also attended the signing ceremony for China-African agricultural cooperation programs.

Liu Qi, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee, met and hosted the banquet for the African delegates.

International departments of the ministries of agriculture, foreign affairs, commerce, finance as well as the National Development and Reform Commission, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League and the State Administration of Grain all sent leaders or delegates to take part in the forum.

China's provincial and prefectural leaders and agricultural government staff, as well as delegates from financial institutions and agriculture-related businesses also attended the forum.

Parties from African countries showed strong interest. More than 100 delegates from 18 countries attended, including four high-level party leaders and 14 Agriculture ministers. This forum was the largest and at the highest level ever between between China and Africa.

As the hosts, the International Department of the CPC Central Committee and China's Ministry of Agriculture prepared the Forum carefully, in the hope of achieving worthwhile results. It provided a platform for both sides to exchange views on opportunities and challenges facing China-African agricultural cooperation in new situations. The two sides deeply explored channels and methods of carrying out cooperation in agriculture and reached strategic consensus on various matters.

The forum passed the China-Africa Agriculture Cooperation Beijing Declaration. The two sides reached agreement on the importance of pushing forward agricultural cooperation and are determined to further promote cooperation in this regard in a practical way, so as to bring tangible benefits to Chinese and African people.

The forum helped promote tangible China-African cooperation, such as bilateral agreement on agricultural cooperation. Businesses from both sides are expected to reach a number of cooperative agreements in the following agricultural cooperation program introduction and entrepreneurial talks.

People's Daily: There are many areas for China and Africa to cooperate. Why have you chosen agricultural cooperation as the theme for China-African exchange dialogue?

Wang Jiarui: China is the largest developing country in the world, so food security is a long-term subject of concern for China. Africa is the largest concentration of developing countries and also the place hungriest for grain and food aid. To maintain food security, promote agricultural development and ensure economic and social stability is the common task facing China and Africa.

To consolidate and develop friendly cooperative relationship with African countries is a solid stepping stone for China's diplomatic work and also China's long-term strategic principles. A Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation was successfully held in Beijing in 2006. Both Chinese and African leaders agreed to set up and push forward a new type of China-African strategic partnership.

In 2009, the 4th Ministerial Conference of China-Africa Cooperation Forum was successfully held in Egypt, where planning was worked out for cooperation between the two sides in the next three years. The Party's foreign exchanges are an important part of China's overall diplomacy. To promote China-African relationships and tangible cooperation in various areas through inter-party exchanges are important missions of the Party's foreign work. Recent years have seen expansion and deepening of China-African agricultural cooperation, with its mechanism being increasingly improved, its forms continuously diversified and its programs effectively conducted.

In the process of communication between the Communist Party of China and parties in African countries, many party leaders from Africa have developed a strong interest in our achievements and experience in the agricultural sector. At the same time, we hope to explore new channels for all-round agricultural cooperation based on strategic planning for China's and Africa's agricultural cooperation. By making agricultural cooperation the theme of the conference, we hope inter-party exchanges will help to set up a new platform for and push forward China and Africa's exchanges and cooperation in the agricultural area. This practice is in line with the demands of the time and accords to China and Africa's realistic and long-term interests. It conforms to China and Africa's development strategies and is also a tangible implementation of the eight new measures proposed by the 4th Ministerial Conference of China-Africa Cooperation Forum.

This Forum is just a starting point. In the future, the Communist Party of China will keep its commitment to enriching the agricultural cooperation between China and Africa and try to improve the quality and level of this cooperation, so as to write a new chapter of tangible cooperation with African parties.

People's Daily: We have noticed in recent years, the Party's diplomatic work increasingly focuses on the promotion of bilateral and multilateral tangible cooperation, such as China-Africa Agriculture Cooperation Forum. Would you please tell us about the motives for doing so?

Wang Jiarui: While promoting tangible China-African cooperation, the Forum also enriches China-African inter-party exchanges. This Forum provides an opportunity for China-African inter-party relationships to play more active roles in promoting tangible cooperation more extensively and to deepen the China-African relationship. Thirty years after China adopted its policy of reform and opening up, the Communist Party of China has always conducted its work around the Party's and the state's central work tasks. In accordance with the demand of the development of our reform and opening up work, we maintain the promotion of bilateral and multilateral cooperation based on a consideration of the overall situation.

After the global financial crisis broke out in 2008, the Central Government made stable and rapid economic development the priority for all tasks, centering on the "expansion of domestic demand to maintain growth and promote the reform of structural adjustment and also to ensure sound and rapid development." The Party's foreign work is adjusted in a timely manner to serve the government's central work. In early 2008, we held the China-Africa Medium and Small Businesses Cooperation Forum in southeast China's Zhejiang Province, where a number of cooperation programs were reached. Later, the China-Arab/Africa Medium and Small Businesses Cooperation Forum and the Poverty Alleviation Conference of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties were held. These actions have drawn positive responses from various areas and are helping domestic enterprises to cope with the global financial crisis and setting up new platforms for China's economic and trade cooperation with relevant countries and regions. Great achievements have been made. This China-Africa Agriculture Cooperation Forum is another successful attempt achieved by tangible inter-party tangible cooperation.

I think, in serving China's socialist modernization cause, these practices have not only helped to combine domestic demand with diverse experience accumulated by the Party during foreign exchanges but are also enriching inter-party relationships. We will carry on with exploration and creation to make greater contributions, promoting the Party's relationships with parties in other countries and China's relationships with the rest of the world and also friendship with all peoples.