Hainan vows to further agricultural cooperation with African countries

A farmer picks tea leaves at a tea garden in Baisha Li Autonomous County in south China's Hainan Province, Feb. 7, 2021. (Xinhua/Zhou Jiayi)

HAIKOU, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's southern island province of Hainan vowed to enhance its cooperation with African countries in tropical agriculture, according to an online forum held in its capital city of Haikou on Thursday.

The province will organize training sessions on tropical agriculture, green development and poverty relief for researchers, experts, and entrepreneurs from its sister cities in Africa, said Liu Hongmei, deputy director of the provincial foreign affairs office, during the event held under the fourth Forum on China-Africa Local Government Cooperation.

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 this year, doubling the number of the same period last year despite the pandemic, Liu stated.

The subforum 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 organized 45 training sessions on tropical agricultural technology for African countries and trained 1,320 agricultural officials and technicians from 40 African countries.