Counsellor Wang’s visit to the Centre of Excellence in Tree Health Biotechnology (CTHB) at FABI

Front row, left to right: Prof Brenda Wingfield, FABI, Counsellor Ding Wang, Mr Hong Xu (second secretary)
Back row, left to right: Dr Xu-Dong Zhou, FABI, Prof Mike Wingfield, Director: FABI, Mr Wilhelm de Beer, FABI, Mr Guohong Zhang (first secretary)

On 9 March 2005, Counsellor Ding Wang (Science and Technology Division) of the Chinese Embassy and his two colleagues, Mr Guohong Zhang (first secretary) and Mr Hong Xu (second secretary) paid an official visit to the Centre of Excellence in Tree Health Biotechnology at FABI, University of Pretoria.

The purpose of the visit was to promote a closer scientific research relationship between the CTHB, TPCP, FABI and Chinese counterparts. Prof Mike Wingfield, the Director of FABI, outlined the objectives and achievements of the CTHB, the Tree Protection Cooperative Programme (TPCP) and FABI to the distinguished guests, and all expressed great interest in establishing closer cooperative linkages in future.

FABI and its researchers have worked closely with their Chinese counterparts over the past seven years, and have recently successfully completed a project under the auspices of the bilateral agreement between South Africa and China.

Counsellor Wang indicated that the next inter-governmental joint committee meeting would be held in Beijing in June 2005. One of the objectives of this meeting was to outline the strategy for future cooperation between the two countries in the field of science and technology.