ACC Secretary-General Attended the Session on the Marginalized Rural Asia

On 9 April 2018, the Session on the Marginalized Rural Asia was held during the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2018.

Mr. Han Changfu, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China, noted that the rural vitalization strategy is an important part of the overall national strategy, the vision of which is to make agriculture a promising industry and farmer an attractive career, and rural areas a beautiful homeland. To achieve these goals, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will promote the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy in five aspects, namely to promote high-quality development of agriculture, to promote rural inhabitation, to promote rural infrastructure construction, to promote rural public services and to improve talent cultivation of rural areas.

Mr. Kim Jong Hoon, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs of Republic of Korea, said that the Republic of Korea is facing such problems as a wider urban-rural income gap, a declining and aging agricultural population. In order to revitalize agriculture, the Korean government has been encouraging young people to “return to agriculture” by providing rural entrepreneurship funds, which has achieved notable results. Since agriculture is the foundation of the national economy, governments should further strengthen their public services in such areas as education, medical care and infrastructure, and develop “countryside tourism” in a rational manner so as to attract more and more talents to start businesses or seek other opportunities in rural areas.

Mr. Ajit Ranade, Senior President & Chief Economist of Aditya Birla Group, briefed on the features of rural areas and agriculture in India. Indian agricultural population accounts for about 55% of its total population, but agricultural revenue accounts for only 14% of its national income. To solve the poverty problem, India hopes to learn from China’s past experiences and transfer some of its agricultural population to service and manufacturing industries. About half of the farmers in India have no land, which limits their motivation and income sources. The Indian government is carrying out reforms in this regard and is looking forward to helping some farmers to get rid of poverty.

Mr. Liu Yonghao, Chairman of New Hope Group, Mr. Miao Jianmin, Chairman of People’s Insurance Company, Mr. Wang Jian, Chairman of Technology Steering Committee of Alibaba, Mr. Wen Tiejun, Professor of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University and other speakers conducted active and extensive discussions on such topics as enterprises' participation in rural revitalization, raising the coverage of traditional financial institutions in rural areas, and introducing rural e-commerce, etc.

H.E. Mme. Yang Xiuping, Secretary-General of ASEAN-China Centre, attended the above-mentioned session.