On May 11, 2017, the opening ceremony of “2017 Training Course on Hybrid Rice Technology for Developing Countries” and “2017 Training Course on Hybrid Maize Technology for Developing Countries” sponsored by Ministry of Commerce of P. R. China and organized by China-aid Hybrid Rice Technology Training Center-Yuan Longping High-tech Agriculture Co., Ltd. were kicked off in Changsha City, Hunan Province. Prof. Yuan Longping, Father of Hybrid Rice and Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, Mr. Xu Kai, Director of the Liaison Office of Human Resources Development of the Training Center of Ministry of Commerce, Mr. Li Peng, Deputy Director of Regulations, Economic and Trading Division of the Department of Commerce of Hunan Province, and Ms. Zhou Dan, Vice President of Longping High-tech and Director of Longping High-tech International Training Center were present in the opening ceremony. 115 participants from 15 developing countries as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Papua New Guinea, South Africa, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe attended the two training courses.
Academician Yuan expressed his lifelong pursuit dream of “developing hybrid rice to benefit the people all over the world” and his loft wish to solve the problem of food security in the opening ceremony. Mr. Xu Kai, on behalf of the Ministry of Commerce said that Chinese government attaches great importance to the strategic development of “Belt and Road” and lays emphasis on agricultural cooperation under this framework. He spoke highly of Longping High-Tech for its active fulfillment of social responsibilities and sincere performance of China- aid tasks which helps China closely connect with other countries, thus it facilitates Chinese enterprises to “going global” and produces profound political and social impacts.
Ms. Zhou Dan gave a warm welcome address and introduced the achievements Longping High-Tech that has made in China-aid training projects in past years. She encouraged the participants to share experience and exchange information for mutual promotion and improvement in agriculture field, and devote themselves to the world food safety. Mr. Abudul Mohammed Harris from Sri Lanka and Ms. Alam Sadia Sabrina from Bangladesh made speeches on behalf of the participants and expressed their gratitude to Chinese government, great respect and high praise to Academician Yuan. They looked forward to take this opportunity to seek further exchange and cooperation with China in agriculture, to realize a win-win situation.
Mr. Jules Boni, a trainee from Papua New Guinea who once participated in hybrid rice technology training organized by Longping High-Tech in 2007, expressed his feelings in the opening ceremony that “I am really excited to go back to this big family after ten years. I appreciate that Chinese government and Longping High-Tech provide such a good opportunity for us to learn knowledge about hybrid corns, share practical agricultural technologies with us, and help our country in agricultural development.” Mr. Boni and other participants have a common wish of improving themselves through this training, so that they can apply what they learned to agricultural production practices when they return back to homelands and make great efforts and contributions to food safety of their countries and even the whole world.
