The Parallel Session on Agricultural Services Trade: Growth, Opportunities and Resilient Global Supply Chains of the sixth Hongqiao International Economic Forum was held in Shanghai on Nov. 6, 2023. Vice Minister Ma Youxiang attended the Session and delivered a keynote speech.              

Vice Minister Ma pointed out that agricultural services are the foundation of agricultural services trade and support its development. In recent years, agricultural services in China have been gearing up through exploration and innovation, featuring increasingly diversified service providers, small farmers-oriented, and wide coverage of areas, hence playing a vital role in ensuring food security, facilitating the integration of small farmers into modern agriculture, and driving the modernization of agriculture.     

As agricultural services have flourished, China’s agricultural services trade has entered a phase of accelerated growth with expanding scale and diversified models and trading partners.  

Vice Minister Ma underscored that developing the agricultural services trade is an effective means for addressing global risks and challenges and enhancing the resilience of the agricultural industry and supply chains. China stands ready to work with all countries to promote institutional opening-up and optimize the trade environment for agricultural services; strengthen innovation-driven development to improve the agricultural services trade; and refine cooperation mechanisms to share the benefits brought about by agricultural services trade.      

The Session was co-hosted by MARA and the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM). It was the third edition of its kind under the framework of the China International Import Expo. This year’s Session included three parts: keynote speeches, a panel discussion on the agricultural services trade and climate-smart agriculture, and a panel discussion on the agricultural services trade and food security and agricultural modernization.     

Manoa Kamikamica, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade, Co-operatives, Small and Medium Enterprises and Communications of Fiji, attended the session. Guo Tingting, Vice Minister of MOFCOM, Paula Gopee-Scoon, Minister of Trade and Industry of Trinidad and Tobago, Marcos Rocha, Governor of Rondônia, Brazil, and Jaana Husu-Kallio, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland, among other officials, attended the Session and delivered remarks. More than 260 representatives participated in the Session, including envoys of various countries and representatives of relevant research institutes, financial institutions, industry associations, agriculture-related multinational companies, provincial-level competent agricultural and rural affairs departments, and the Center for High-quality Development of International Agricultural Trade.