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WFP to purchase more goods in China
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-12-16 15:40 The United Nations World Food
Program (WFP) said here Thursday that it will keep its Beijing office after the
end of its food assistance to China, and purchasemore goods in China.
"This is unprecedented in WFP's history," said James Morris, executive
director of WFP at a ceremony celebrating the 26th anniversary of its
partnership with the Chinese government.
"WFP cherishes the cooperation with China very much, and the Beijing office
will be of the same importance in liaison as the offices in New York, London and
Geneva," he said.
Fan Xiaojian, vice minister of agriculture, said at the ceremony that China
will continue to support WFP's global poverty-reduction program and welcome WFP
to cooperate with the Chinese in a wider scope, like purchasing goods and
conducting food processing and transportation in China.
"China still has 26.1 million people living in poverty," Fan stressed, saying
that China hopes WFP would continue to support China in capacity building,
training on food security, improvementof rural women's skills, training for
surplus labor transfer and education of children in rural areas.
WFP, which has offered 1 billion US dollars worth of grain to China since
1979 and helped nourish 30 million people in the country, will end food aid to
China by the end of 2005 as China has made tremendous success in alleviating
hunger of its people under poverty, said Morris.
While receiving aid from WFP, China has begun to give more support to WFP
step by step, and had contributed 5 million US dollars to WFP by April this
year.
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