Bangladesh, China's Fujian forge G2G partnership to modernise

Bangladesh and China’s Fujian Province have agreed to establish a government-to-government partnership to modernise Bangladesh’s agriculture sector, with an emphasis on technology transfer, research collaboration and investment. The decision was reached during high-level talks at the Bangladesh Secretariat on 8 July, where Bangladesh’s delegation was led by Agriculture Minister Amin Ur Rashid Yasin, Agriculture Secretary Rafiqul Islam Mohammad and BADC chairman Md Azizul Islam. The Chinese side was headed by Lin Guoshan, secretary of the CPC Party Leadership Group and director of the Fujian Provincial Supply and Marketing Cooperative. A key outcome was expediting the renewal of a di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) fertiliser agreement with Chinese Banyan International Trading Limited ahead of the September–October peak procurement season. Discussions also covered hybrid rice, agro-processing, agro-innovation, cold-chain logistics and aquaculture. Fujian supported plans to convert more than 200,000 irrigation pumps to solar power, targeting fuel-import savings of nearly $1 billion annually.