Afghanistan Times
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AT-KABUL: People’s Republic of China donated around 300 new tractors and with some extra equipment to the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) to support the agricultural production in Afghanistan.
The tractors cost around $8.5 million and will be distributed among farmers in different provinces of the country.
China’s Ambassador in Kabul, Deng Xijun, handed over the keys to Minister of Agriculture, Asadullah Zamir, in a ceremony on Tuesday.
Deng said that in addition to 300 tractors, China has also dispatched ten experts in order to help the agricultural workers to improve the production and enhance the self-development capacity of Afghans.
He said that agriculture is the foundation of a nation and Afghanistan is a major agricultural country and agriculture plays important role in the economic growth. More than 20 percent of Afghan gross domestic product (GDP) and 40 percent of Afghan labor force is engaged in the agriculture sector.
The ambassador hoped that the aid would play a positive role in improvement of the agricultural production and promotion of new mechanism in Afghanistan.
Mr Xijun further said the assistance not only reflect the strong support of the Chinese government to Afghanistan in the post-war reconstruction, especially in agricultural development, but also demonstrate the profound friendship between the two people of the two neighboring countries.
“We expect to join hands with Afghanistan in a better way and provide more assistance and support for Afghanistan to continuously promote the tangible cooperation in every field with a view of consistently deepening the bilateral strategic cooperation partnership and striving to blaze a trial for a better future of the two countries together,” he said.
Asadullah Zamir thanked Beijing for the assistance and said this is unrivaled cooperation in the last two decades for improvement of agricultural sector in the country.
He said that technical cooperation of China could pave the ground for promotion of modern agriculture methods in the country.
