Bilateral Meeting with H.E Vulgain Andzembe Tsiegori, General Commissioner for Planning of the Republic of Gabon

Rome - FAO Director General QU Dongyu met today with H.E Vulgain Andzembe Tsiegori, General Commissioner for Planning of the Republic of Gabon, on the margins of 2024 World Food Forum.

The Director-General welcomed the Commissioner General and appreciated the participation of Gabon in the 2024 World Food Forum. He recognized the country’s strategic position and its mineral wealth, which can contribute immensely to food sufficiency and improve agriculture production in Gabon.

The Commissioner thanked the Director-General and expressed appreciation for the opportunity granted to Gabon to present its investment proposals at the Hand in Hand Investment Forum. He informed that Gabon intended to diversify the economy with agriculture taking advantage of their natural resources. He further informed that the government had been working closely with the FAO Investment Centre to set up high productivity agricultural zones in rural areas to create wealth and investment for young people and to increase agriculture production and improve food sufficiency through climate-smart agriculture, but there was a budget deficit and impressed on the need for technical support to build capacity to mitigate the budget deficit gap.

The Director-General reaffirmed FAO’s commitment to continue with technical assistance to Gabon. He advised that the focus would be primarily on identifying commodities which could be developed by small farmers, and mobilization of resources could follow once there was a solid base, with a holistic design of the projects for intended commodities.

The Commissioner further stated that the country was faced with food deficit and malnutrition in rural areas and as a result the government was focusing on promoting healthy foods in close collaboration with the FAO to produce sufficient and healthy foods and ensure accessibility.

The Director-General stated that rural development, agrifood systems transformation and creating jobs for young people in agriculture were interlinked and could not be achieve separately.