President Alvaro Lario of the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) deepened IFAD’s strong and evolving partnership with the People's Republic of China last week on his second official visit to Beijing. During his two-day visit, he met senior government officials, including Chinese Vice Premier Liu Guozhong, and several development partners to build on IFAD’s existing relationship with China.
Lario explored new avenues for partnership in promoting rural vitalization and green development in the country, while also identifying opportunities to expand cooperation in sharing China’s highly successful experiences in poverty reduction and rural development with other countries in the global South.
“IFAD’s partnership with China is a cornerstone of our work in Asia and indeed around the world,” said Lario. “We look forward to continuing our support for China’s agenda of rural vitalization, and working globally to share our knowledge, resources, and expertise on rural poverty alleviation and empower small-scale farmers through the China-IFAD South-South and Triangular Cooperation facility,” he added.
IFAD has worked closely with China to identify, promote, validate and scale-up viable agricultural innovations through a dedicated South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) facility, which was established in 2018. As of early 2024, the facility had supported projects focusing on poverty reduction, fighting malnutrition and promoting rural youth employment in more than 38 countries and facilitated around 120 business-to-business linkages, directly benefitting about 30,000 small-scale farmers.
Lario also met Minister of Finance Lan Fo'an, expressing appreciation for the strong vote of confidence in IFAD’s work reflected in China’s increased contribution to IFAD’s Thirteenth Replenishment of its resources (US$87 million) and an additional US$10 million contribution to the IFAD-China SSTC facility.
President Lario also met Jin Liqun, president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Luo Zhaohui, chairman of the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA), and Lin Jingzhen, executive director and executive vice president of the Bank of China. These meetings focused on strengthening existing partnerships, and prospects for new joint investment in rural development projects that focus on building thriving, productive and resilient rural communities.
Since 1981, when IFAD became the first international financial institution to invest in China, IFAD has financed 35 projects for a total investment of US$3.45 billion, with US$1.3 billion of IFAD’s own funds, benefitting around 4.6 million households.