From December 6 to 9, 2021 the African-Asian Rural Development Organization (AARDO) held the 73^rd Executive Committee Meeting and the 20^th General Session of AARDO Conference.  Dr. Junne-Jih Chen, Deputy Minister of the Council of Agriculture (COA),  led a delegation of relevant staff from the COA and colleagues from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to attend the meeting via video conference, while the representatives from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India participated in person. With the support of all AARDO members, ROC(Taiwan) was elected to be a member of the Executive Committee and of the management committee of the Corpus Fund. Taiwan committed to continue to make substantive contributions to the operations of AARDO and to agricultural and rural development in the African-Asian region.

The COA states that the AARDO was founded in 1962 and its headquarters is in New Delhi, India. It has 31 member countries from Asia and Africa. Its main purpose is to organize training and study of issues including agricultural and rural development, small business growth, vegetable cultivation, seed production, land reform, empowerment of rural women, and agricultural statistics. It aims to strengthen agricultural cooperation and technical exchanges among member countries and is a very important international agricultural organization in Asia and Africa. In addition, in order to ensure the organization’s sustainable development and strengthen its impact in Asia and Africa, AARDO founded the US$3 million Corpus Fund in 2019, which is used to stabilize the organization’s finances and to expand the operation of relevant matters and programs, with the goal of promoting sustainable agricultural and rural development in the African-Asian region.

Taiwan joined AARDO in 1968, and has worked closely with the Secretariat and member countries for a long time to jointly hold relevant activities. These activities have included training programs for agricultural technical personnel, dispatch of experts to provide technical assistance, and invitations to ministers and experts from member states to come to Taiwan for study visits. Taiwan had served one term as Vice-President of AARDO and nine terms on the Executive Committee (with each term lasting three years) and has been very active in the organization’s operations and decision-making. During this most recent Executive Committee meeting and the AARDO Conference, Taiwan again won the support of all member states and was elected as a member of the Executive Committee and a member of the management committee for the Corpus Fund. These positions will facilitate the continued deepening of cooperation between Taiwan and AARDO, which will assist countries in the African-Asian region to promote the transformation and upgrading of agricultural industries and rural development.