The two sides held in-depth talks on promoting Sino-Sweden Agricultural Cooperation.

At the meeting, Minister Han said that thanks to high-level complementarities in agriculture, a good cooperation foundation and steady growth of bilateral trade in agriculture, China and Sweden enjoy great potential for future cooperation.

A stronger cooperation relationship in agriculture will serve the interests of both countries.

He said China wishes to join hands with Sweden to expand and deepen bilateral cooperation in agriculture. To achieve this goal, Minister Han has put forward six suggestions:

• to carry out cooperation on agricultural science and technology by encouraging research institutes and experts from the two countries to conduct exchanges and collaboration in various areas, including meat and dairy processing and environmental protection;
• to strengthen cooperation on policy and technical measures on quality and safety of agri-products, in particular, on risk assessment and early-warning;
• to promote cooperation on animal husbandry and veterinary services, especially communication on or joint development of key technologies in dairy breeding and farming, and swine production; to establish a dialogue mechanism between the veterinary authorities of the two countries;
• China wishes to draw on Swedish experiences concerning successful organic farming model and related management philosophy, and establish pilot organic farming projects in China;
• to carry out bilateral cooperation on biomass energy;
• to encourage investment between private sectors of both countries and facilitate steady growth of bilateral agricultural trade.

Eskil Erlandsson said Swedish Ministry of Rural Affairs fully agrees with these suggestions for future cooperation.

It will further promote mutually-beneficial cooperation in different areas including quality and safety of agri-products, animal farming, veterinary services, agricultural science and technology, organic farming and biomass energy. He also wishes to discuss with China about possible technical communication on research, production and processing of oats.

At the end of the meeting, a Memorandum of Understanding on Agricultural Cooperation was signed by the two ministries, while an agreement on future research cooperation was signed by Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Minister Han and his delegation are on a visit to Sweden upon the invitation of Eskil Erlandsson. During their stay in Sweden, the delegation visited the headquarters of Ericsson, where they learned about the application of information technology in agriculture. The delegation had a meeting with senior managers of Ericsson to discuss how agriculture can benefit from modern information technology. Minister Han pointed out, the use of information technology is critical to China's agriculture while China is now in the process of industrialization, urbanization and agricultural modernization.

The delegation also visited a number of well-known Swedish agri-businesses, including Delaval and Tetra Pak. MOA Chief Economist Chen Mengshan and representatives of Chinese agri-businesses are among the members of the Chinese delegation.