President Dr. Arif Alvi presented the Outstanding Contribution Award to the first Chinese recipient. The award was bestowed upon Yang Yuanzhu, head researcher for the hybrid rice varieties and vice president of Yuan LongpingHitech, a renowned Chinese Agriculture company, in recognition of their exceptional contribution to the economic development and bilateral trade between Pakistan and China.
It was a historical moment for the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as it was in connection with its 14th Outstanding Contribution Award celebration, Gwadar Pro reported on Wednesday.
The Outstanding Contribution Award is created by the chamber for people who have made a significant contribution to the country’s economic development.
A total of 13 people were honored this time, with Yang Yuanzhu being the first non-Pakistani recipient of the award since its inception.
On the occasion, President Dr. ArifAlvi delivered a major speech in which he highly acknowledged and lauded the outstanding contribution of Chinese hybrid rice to Pakistan’s food production and foreign exchange earnings from rice exports.
Under the leadership of Yang Yuanzhu, the Yuan Longping High-Tech R&D team has developed a batch of high-quality hybrid rice varieties suitable for marketing in Pakistan through 10 years of efforts.
In the last three years, the average annual sales of hybrid rice seeds have been around 5 million kg with a market share of about 40 percent, ranking first among all seed companies in Pakistan.
With an annual uplift of over 800,000 acres of mixed rice, an annual increase of over 1.5 million tons of rice and an annual increase of over $300 million in foreign exchange, the team has made an outstanding contribution to the grain increase and economic development of Pakistan.
In 1999, Yuan Longping High-Tech and Pakistan Guard Agricultural Services signed a cooperation agreement to jointly develop hybrid rice in Pakistan and for more than 20 years, the two sides have been working closely to promote hybrid rice in Pakistan.—INP
