FAO Director-General and ITU Secretary-General agree to set up new action plan

7 October 2019, Geneva - FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu met today with Houlin Zhao, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union, to sign an addendum to the existing MoU containing an action plan. They discussed areas of future cooperation, in particular digital and smart farming practices as well as ICT challenges in the framework of rural development .

Both principals expressed their strong conviction to further strengthen existing collaboration and explore potential country-level cooperation.

The Secretary-General of ITU expressed a strong interest in the Hand in Hand initiative and ensured the willingness of his Organization to contribute to it.

The two principals met on the sidelines of World Cotton Day, held at the initiative of the “C-4” countries – Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali – and hosted at the WTO with the collaboration of FAO, the UN Conference on Trade and Development and other organizations.