Mr. Li Yanquan, Vice President of CAF sent a congratulational banner and a letter to Prof. Michael Wingfield (2nd from left), former Director of FABI, and Prof. Bernard Slippers (1st from right), current Director of FABI

Mr. Hou Lihong, science and technology counselor spoke with the delegation

Mr. Chen Shuaifei, research fellow, was making his presentation

The international symposium themed The Road to Research Excellence, or the 20^th anniversary of The Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI) at the University of Pretoria was held from 24^th to 25^th Jan. The CAF four-people delegation, led by Mr. Li Yanquan, Vice President of CAF, was invited to attend the symposium. Nearly 200 people from universities, research institutions and enterprises of South Africa, the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands were also present at the symposium.

Mr. Li Yanquan sent a congratulational banner to Prof. Michael Wingfield, former Director of FABI (1998 to Dec 2017), and Prof. Bernard Slippers, current Director of FABI on behalf of CAF, and a congratulational letter from Mr. Zhang Shougong, President of CAF.

Mr. Hou Lihong, science and technology counselor of the Embassy of China in South Africa also attended the 20^th anniversary activities, and spoke with the delegation. Mr. Hou Lihong acknowledged CAF’s cooperation results with FABI, and expected CAF to continue its extensive and in-depth collaboration with FABI and other South African research institutions, so as to contribute to China-South Africa friendly cooperation.

Mr. Chen Shuaifei, research fellow of China Eucalyptus Research and Development Center, made a presentation titled “FABI-China: Good friendships, great achievements and a bright future”, in which he reviewed collaboration history between CAF and other Chinese institutions and FABI on forest tree health, and results, and proposed his expectations on future cooperation.

FABI is a world-renowned research institution specialized in tropical and sub-tropical forest tree health research, and one of the closest and the most important cooperation partners of CAF in Africa. During the past 10 years, FABI and China Eucalyptus Research and Development Center cooperated in forest tree health research, with fruitful results. The two sides carried forward two international science and technology cooperation programs of China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, trained 6 PhDs, published 42 SCI articles, including 1 with IF higher than 10, and 6 with IF higher than 5. In Oct 2015, the two sides signed an MOU on forest tree protection cooperation program, further promoting cooperative research on forest tree health. In addition, Prof. Michael Wingfield, former Director of FABI was hired as honorary professor by CAF, and was recommended by CAF and received the “Friendship Award” from the Chinese government.

Mr. Xie Yaojian, Director General of China Eucalyptus Research and Development Center, and Ms. Chen Yujie, Deputy Director of Division of International Cooperation, also attended the symposium. (Chen Yujie, Division of International Cooperation)