On November 27th, Dr Jiang Lu delivered an online speech under the theme of “Chinese Agricultural Investment in Africa: Business or Development” on the Governance Dialogue Seminar. It was highly welcomed by the members of the FAO Governance Support Technical Network (GSTN). Dr Jiang’s speech was inspiring and vivid, using facts and data to analyze a lot of phenomena which were usually negelected by people. The senior Coordinator of GSTN, Michael T. Clark highly appreciated the ideas of Dr Jiang. He wrote a thanks letter and expressed his expectations of more cooperation with FDDI.

Firstly, Dr Jiang introduced the motives of The State-led Agriculture ‘Going-out’ Strategy. Since China is a resource oriented country, insuring the supply of cash crop is of great importance. With half of the global level of per capita area of cultivated land and the full-scale of second child policy, we are facing increasing contradiction between plowland and human. Therefore investment and trades in other countries become an important choice. Meanwhile, Africa has always been a very crucial part of China’s AGO Strategy and an important aid object.

Secondly, Dr Jiang used a series of imperical facts and data to illustrate the status quo of China’s investment in Africa. The investment in Africa has reached 12.7billion dollars by the time of 2016. From China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, it is clear that China has invested in Africa’s agriculture in various regions, industries and planting programs, which rebuts the fake opinions that China is trying to control other countries through investments.

Lastly, Dr Jiang explains the mode of China’s State-led Agriculture ‘Going-out’. She showed the problems as well as the solutions from financing, value chain, production to marketing and profitability. Financing has always been one of the biggest obstacles in the investment. Value chain, on the other hand, concentrated too much on the production stage. When it comes to making profits and benefiting the countries in the long run, there is still a long way to go.

All in all, the thought-provoking speech has brought up lots of new ideas and perspectives. We are expecting a bright future of Africa and looking forward to its reaching 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

标题图片引用自 人民网“中企的农业技术让坦桑尼亚千顷荒原变成良田，当地村民感慨——‘有了稳定收入，我们的日子也好了起来’ ” 2018年12月25日

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