Interview: China key partner in plan to achieve Arab food security: Arab official

President of the Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development (AAAID) Mohammed Bin Obaid Al-Mazrooei on Friday said China is a major partner in the authority's plans aiming at achieving Arab food security and address the food gap issue.

"We have relations with China, whether at the government or private sector levels," Al-Mazrooei said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua Friday.

"China is a major partner and we are looking forward to further cooperation. We are seeking to take advantage of China's experiences in the agricultural fields," he noted.

"We are seeking to make use of China's experiences, technologies and innovations in the agricultural domain. We need the Chinese experts to upgrade efficiency of the workers in the agricultural field," he went on saying.

Al-Mazrooei further explained that China would participate with a high-level delegation in the third Arab Conference for Agricultural Investment, which is to be hosted by the Sudanese capital Khartoum next February.

"China will actively participate in the conference, where a memorandum of understanding will be signed between the AAAID and China on the sidelines of the conference. We will also discuss possibility of establishing joint projects," he said.

He noted that the conference intends to mobilize resources to invest in the agricultural sector and promote for the agricultural investment opportunities in the Arab world.

"We are seeking, via the conference, to achieve the Arab food security, address the food gap and encourage innovation in the agricultural field," he said.

Al-Mazrooei urged the Arab countries to attach concern to the agricultural sector and put it as a top priority, saying "there are huge potentialities in our Arab countries that need to be utilized in a better way."

He went on saying "there must be joint efforts to develop the agricultural sector in the Arab world besides provision of infrastructures and the necessary guarantees for investors."

The AAAID is to organize the third Arab conference for agricultural investment in Khartoum during next February 27-28, with the aim to attract the stakeholders in the region to get acquainted with the immense potentialities in the Arab world and the challenges in the agricultural sector.

It also intends to cast light on the efforts of the Arab countries in improving their investment climate and the effect of that on increasing the agricultural investments, attracting capitals to the Arab countries which are rich in their agricultural resources and enhancing the commercial exchange, namely agricultural products, between the Arab countries, he noted.

Senior officials from Arab countries, businessmen and investors from all parts of the world are to take part in the conference besides a number of world and Arab organizations, representatives of farmers unions, economists, researchers and others concerned with the agricultural sector. Endit