Hainan vows to further agricultural cooperation with African countries

China’s southern island province of Hainan on Thursday vowed to enhance its cooperation with African countries in tropical agriculture, according to an online forum held in the capital city of Haikou.
Liu Hongmei, deputy director of the provincial foreign affairs office made the declaration during the event held under the fourth Forum on China-Africa Local Government Cooperation.

The province said it would organize training sessions on tropical agriculture, green development and poverty relief for researchers, experts, and entrepreneurs from its sister cities in Africa.
Liu stated that the trade volume between Hainan and African countries reached over 2.52 billion yuan (about 390 million U.S. dollars) in the first seven months of 2021, doubling the number of the same period in 2020 despite the pandemic.

The sub forum received delegates from African countries, including Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and Egypt.
The forum was designed to boost communication and cooperation among local governments in China and Africa and further expand people-to-people exchanges.
In recent years, Hainan has organised 45 training sessions on tropical agricultural technology for African countries and trained 1,320 agricultural officials and technicians from 40 African countries.