On 21 March 2017, H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping, ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) Secretary-General, met with Ms. Zhou Yanhua, Deputy Director General of Hainan Provincial Department of Agriculture, and exchanged views on enhancing agricultural cooperation between Hainan and ASEAN countries. Ms. Li Minying, Director of Hainan Agriculture Department, and Mr. Zhong Jinxiong, President of Luoniushan Co.,Ltd. attended the meeting.

Director General Zhou Yanhua said that Hainan province, which is rich in seed resources and boasts good ecological environment with tropical features, has favorable condition for agricultural development. In recent years, Hainan made active efforts in building the research and development base for new varieties of tropical crops, the research and demonstration base for tropical agriculture product processing and logistic and trade centre for tropical agriculture products, with an aim to make agricultural development a pillar of Hainan’s economy. In the area of international cooperation, Hainan has been enhancing its agriculture cooperation with Viet Nam, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, and other ASEAN countries, and has produced gratifying results. The trade volume of agriculture products has been expanding. Agriculture technology exchanges with other countries are progressing steadily. Hainan is looking forward to further expanding its cooperation with ASEAN countries by organizing relevant agriculture enterprises to build agricultural zone in ASEAN countries, and would like to seek the valuable support of ACC.

Secretary-General Yang Xiuping made a brief introduction of the development of ASEAN-China relations as well as ACC’s mandate. She said that agriculture cooperation is one of the priorities of ASEAN-China pragmatic cooperation. As most ASEAN countries are agriculture based countries, the two sides do have great potential in promoting agriculture cooperation. Since the establishment of Lancang-Mekong cooperation mechanism, China further strengthened its ties with the ASEAN countries along the river, which brought about more opportunities in agriculture cooperation. Hainan is expected to give full play to its advantages in agriculture technology, agriculture management and agriculture facilities, to match accurately with ASEAN counterparts, and draw on each other’s strengths in agriculture cooperation. ACC would like to further play its role as a bridge and platform so as to help Hainan agriculture enterprises to “go out and invite in”, and to gain win-win results.