Staff Reporter Islamabad
The cooperation between Pakistan and China in the agricultural sector will give a boom to that field of Pakistan, Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam said.
Speaking at an online conference for promotion of Pakistan’s chilli contract farming project, the minister said that China possesses advanced experience in the agricultural sector as compared to Pakistan, and his country can learn from China by adopting farming techniques and introducing them in the country.
The conference was organized by the China-Pakistan Agricultural and Industrial Cooperation Information Platform which was jointly launched by the two countries in January, 2021 to organize business forums, business delegations and other activities to promote exchanges and cooperation in the field of agriculture and industry, and advance business-to-business cooperation between the two countries.
“Value addition, marketing and public-private partnership are some of the areas which can be worked on by the businessmen of both countries for the benefit of both of the countries,” Imam said, adding that the bilateral cooperation will enhance agricultural output and improve their quality, enabling Pakistani commodities to reach international markets.
On the occasion, Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong said that Chinese companies have successfully planted chillies on almost 100-acre of land in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province through cooperation with their Pakistani partners and both sides plan to expand the planting scale and set up chilli-processing factory in the future to improve the livelihoods of local farmers.
The agricultural cooperation between the two countries have a great potential and China will encourage more Chinese companies to bring advanced techniques, good-quality seeds and machinery to Pakistan to promote the development of the country’s agricultural sector, he said.
The cooperation in agriculture and industry has become a focus of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the progress in the agricultural cooperation will facilitate the high-quality development of CPEC, the Chinese envoy added.
Addressing the conference, Asim Saleem Bajwa, Chairman of Pakistan’s CPEC Authority, said that the country is working on industrial development in the second phase of CPEC, and agricultural cooperation is also expected to increase at the same pace.
He said that cultivation of chillies in cooperation by Pakistani and Chinese companies is a vivid and practical demonstration of the agricultural cooperation between the two countries, adding that Chinese investors can also pay attention to the livestock sector of Pakistan.
During the conference, the Pakistan-China Condiments Industry Alliance was launched to promote bilateral cooperation in the field of condiments.
