Pakistan's ambassador to China Khalil Hashmi hailed the ongoing 31st China Yangling Agricultural High-Tech Fair in Shaanxi, expressing hope to enhance cooperation in the field by sending more exchange students to the northwestern province in the future.
The five-day event, running on Oct 25-29, is one of China's most comprehensive trade events in agriculture, gathering over 1,800 enterprises from 49 countries.
Hashmi, who personally attended the fair, said that the event provides an opportunity for countries around the world to communicate and cooperate in the field of agriculture. The Pakistani delegation to the fair contains 10 companies from different fields, hoping to promote new cooperation.
"They (exhibitors) are in different areas, in, for example, efficient farming. They are growers also, they are farmers but they are also in agriculture businesses. But in terms of benefiting from the Yangling Agricultural High-Tech Fair, I think we are looking at three, four areas. One is of course Pakistan, being a large agricultural country, we are looking at efficient irrigation techniques using water techniques where we are facing water scarcity, so efficient water-use technologies. Also seedlings, new seed varieties where we can enhance our productivity, and also pest control where our crops and our fruits and vegetables can be protected against different diseases," Hashmi said.
Hashmi said that he hopes to promote more cooperation between Yangling, Shaanxi Province and Pakistan by participating in the Agricultural High-Tech Fair, not only in agriculture, but also in education, energy, training, scientific research and other fields.
"Shaanxi (has) very, very friendly people, so Pakistan and Shaanxi Province have a long-standing cooperation. In June this year, the prime minister of Pakistan (Shehbaz Sharif) visited Shaanxi Xi'an, and he also visited Yangling. Since then we have intensified our cooperation in the field of economy, investment, trade, energy, agriculture. So right now we want to enhance and take this collaboration to a new height through people-to-people exchanges, through our cultural exchanges," he said.
"We are starting with training and education of 1,000 farmers and researchers and students in the field of agriculture, because Yangling and Shaanxi provide an excellent opportunity, and they have so much experience. We already have students studying in Shaanxi Province, but I think with the arrival of up to 1,000 more, our linkages and our exchanges between Shaanxi Yangling and Pakistan will even increase further," added the ambassador.
Pakistan to enhance cooperation with China in agriculture: ambassador
