The Ambassador of Belarus to Pakistan Mr. Andrei Ermolovich along with scientists and members Ministry of Agriculture Belarus called on Federal Minister National Food Security and Research Sahibzada Mehboob Sultan here in Islamabad today. Pakistan and Belarus signed MoU in year 2015, in the same year Memorandum of Intention (MoI) was signed between two countries, the basic purpose of the MoI was mutual cooperation in the field of agro technology and research in areas identified mutually by both the governments: Scientific cooperation and research, Exchange of agro machinery and research in the field of cattle farming. To achieve these ends the Joint Working Group (JWG) was formulated to make progress in the identified areas so far 4 sessions of JWG took place successfully; the fifth session is expected to be held in first quarter of next year. Federal Minister for MNFSR Sahibzada Mehboob Sultan welcomed the guests and said that we focus on increase in mutual turnover of agriculture goods. Pakistan is a big producer of dairy milk but the lack of technological advancements the desired results could not be attained, it is quite intriguing that Republic of Belarus has ultra modern milk processing and dairy production technologies hence Pakistan could start joint venture(s) and make use of Belarusian technologies. Moreover, both the countries could work on harmonization of veterinary standards of both the countries. Federal Minister Sahibzada Mehboob said that since both the countries identified almost 18 areas where the exchange of technologies could take place, we are eager to take it to next level and start the projects jointly to get to that end. The areas identified are vital for the uplift of farmers and thereby agriculture, those include cattle breeding through advanced technological assistance and cooperation in genetic engineering, research in dairy production and processing, improvement of productive qualities of beef cattle and veterinary vaccine development, all these proposed areas/projects go parallel with the incumbent government’s vision about agro development in the country. Mehboob Sultan further said that Belarusian machinery especially tractors are very famous in Pakistan and in the last meeting the ambassador showed his interest to expand the scope of trade in the area and it is a welcoming sign and we are ready to negotiate on those matters as well. It is pertinent that the considerable progress to move ahead for this mutual venture has been made and sound proposals for cooperation in the areas of Animal Science, Farm machinery and biotechnology; also relevant focal persons and institutions from both sides have been finalized. The development of projects on the finalized proposal is also under process. The purpose of current visit of scientists from National Academy of Sciences Belarus (NASB) is to finalize the projects and discuss the implementation mechanism as well. The officials told the Federal Minister that Belarusian Agriculture Minister considers this collaboration very important and extended on his behalf the invitation to attend the international agro conference to be held next year in Belarus. Sahibzada Mehboob Sultan expressed his satisfaction over the projects to be initiated in the light of proposals from the joint working group and assured that ministry of Food Security would follow the process rigorously and bring it to fruition. Scientists from Pakistan Agriculture Research Council and officials of M/o MNFSR were also present in the meeting.
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