6 December 2018, Rome. The signing ceremony of the FAO-China South-South Cooperation Tripartite Agreement between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the People’s Republic of China, and the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka took place at FAO headquarters on 6 December 2018. The aim of this South-South Cooperation project is to help Sri Lanka boost the production and commercialization of fruit crops among the value chain actors in the country.

Mr Daniel Gustafson, Deputy Director-General (Programmes) of FAO, His Excellency Niu Dun, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of China to FAO and Mr K.D.S. Ruwanchandra, Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture of Sri Lanka, attended the ceremony and signed the agreements on behalf of the Organization and their Governments respectively.

FAO’s South-South Cooperation initiatives help developing countries share and transfer agricultural knowledge and expertise among themselves, so that innovation and good practices that have been tested elsewhere in the global South can benefit other countries facing similar challenges. China has been an active participant, strong supporter and major contributor of FAO’s South-South Cooperation, granting USD 80 million to the FAO-China South-South Cooperation Programme in support of knowledge sharing and technology transfer among southern countries.