The year 2023 is designated the China-ASEAN Year of Agricultural Development and Food Security Cooperation and marks the first anniversary of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.

In this context, the 17th ASEAN-China Forum on Social Development and Poverty Reduction was convened on 26-29 June in Beihai, Guangxi, China, with the theme “Deepening Regional Cooperation, Promoting Poverty Reduction and Rural Development”. The event, co-hosted by the National Rural Revitalization Administration of China and the People’s Government of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, was jointly organized by the International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC), Beihai Municipal People’s Government and other partners.

During the opening session, which was inaugurated by H.E. Mr Liu Huanxin, Administrator of the National Rural Revitalization Administration of China, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in China Mr Siddharth Chatterjee mentioned the work of the Centre for Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization (CSAM) of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) on South-South Cooperation, noting that many of CSAM’s initiatives have been recognized as best practices in South-South cooperation by UNOSSC, including the pilots on integrated straw management to reduce burning of crop residue, first implemented in China and Viet Nam and later expanded to include Cambodia and Indonesia.

Sub-topics of the forum included “Food Security and Poverty Reduction” and “Market Integration, Trade and Poverty Reduction”. CSAM participated with a presentation on linking the achievement of SDG1 (no poverty) and SDG2 (zero hunger) through sustainable agricultural mechanization, which can increase both agricultural productivity and farmers’ livelihoods, and has been instrumental in many programmes for poverty alleviation in China and across the Asia-Pacific region. A CSAM multistakeholder survey for the development of a ‘Framework for enabling investment for modern and sustainable mechanization technologies and practices for smallholder farming in ASEAN’ was presented and circulated among the ASEAN delegates. ESCAP’s Trade, Investment and Innovation Division also participated with a presentation of its online tool for the negotiation of trade agreements (TINA: Trade Intelligence and Negotiation Adviser https://tina.trade).

The event was attended by officials from ASEAN Members, and was supported by ASEAN Secretariat, UNDP, and the China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges (CICETE) as well as the Alibaba Foundation.