Bilateral meeting with H.E. Liu Guohong, Vice Minister of Natural Resources of China

Rome - FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu met with H.E. Liu Guohong, Vice Minister of Natural Resources of China, and his delegation at FAO headquarters.

Vice Minister Liu expressed his gratitude for the warm reception, commended Director-General Qu for his leadership, and acknowledged FAO’s significant contributions to the global agrifood system. The Vice Minister further highlighted the Ministry of Natural Resources’ (MNR) strengths in managing essential data, particularly satellite remote sensing imagery, including global surface coverage and soil data, and expressed the MNR's willingness to enhance cooperation with FAO, especially in supporting other developing countries by providing access to its data resources.

The Director-General welcomed the Vice Minister and expressed his gratitude for the MNR’s continued support of FAO’s work. He underscored the importance of digitalization in FAO’s initiatives, such as the Digital Villages (DVI), One Country One Priority Product (OCOP), and Hand-in-Hand (HIH), while also introducing the Soil Mapping project.

The Director-General further emphasized that both FAO and the global community greatly benefit from China's big data expertise and encouraged the MNR to actively implement and promote the MoU and the implementation agreement, as well as inviting the MNR to join the Hand-in-Hand initiative to facilitate knowledge sharing on high-quality data with the world which could greatly assist other developing countries in establishing and improving their soil survey mechanism for example.

Finally, the Director-General recommended that the MNR fully leverage platforms such as South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) programme to further solidify and expand its collaboration with FAO.