China-PNG Cooperation: Agricultural projects bring benefits to Papua New Guinea
Updated 21:15, 21-Nov-2018
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03:14
During President Xi's visit to Papua New Guinea, the two countries signed a number of agreements. One of them is for a rice farming project in the Pacific Island country. CGTN's Liu Yang has visited the highland region there, to see how the two countries have worked together in agriculture.
Dr. Brian Waii was the first person to bring the JUNCAO technology back from China's Fujian Province to Papua New Guinea many decades ago. It allows the locals to grow rice and mushrooms out of the special wild grass, which can also be used to feed livestock. Waii says as the son of a tribal chief, he feels responsible to improve the lives of those in his community.
DR. BRIAN WAII FIRST PERSON TO BRING JUNCAO TO PNG "Our people are more farming person, that is why I found this technology is so suitable. You can make harvest in a short period of time. And then you keep harvesting every day. And once you doing this, the money is coming in, so improve the social life and economic life. So I talked to professor Lin, I got to take this technology home."
The professor he mentioned was- Lin Zhanxi, who is the inventor of this JUNCAO technology. Lin allowed Waii to take the valuable grass back to his country. JUNCAO the wild grass was made possible by modern agricultural technology, so that it can be turned into nutrition.
LIN ZHANXI, CHIEF SCIENTIST FUJIAN AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY "To help these countries out of poverty, generating income is indispensable. It is their needs. The land here is fertile, and it can produce quality agricultural products."
In 2017, China and Papua New Guinea signed the two countries' Tax-Free Agriculture Industrial Park Cooperation Memorandum of Agreement. Under the framework, a demonstration area will be built for a variety of agricultural processes.
GU WEI, CHIEF ENGINEER CHINA RAILWAY INTERNATIONAL GROUP "Through this development, we can sell these agricultural products to China. Our goals are to benefit the people of Papua New Guinea and to ensure product safety."
LIU YANG PORT MORESBY, PNG "China and Papua New Guinea's bilateral relations are the best they've been since the two established diplomatic ties. Both sides have made positive progress in agricultural investment and technical cooperation. The country is the first Pacific Island nation to sign cooperation agreements with China under the Belt and Road Initiative. As Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi says, China would like to strengthen cooperation with Papua New Guinea on joint construction of the Belt and Road, through investment, agriculture and industrial modernization so as to help transfer PNG's resource potential for the country's development. LIU YANG, CGTN PNG."