Cross-border research work bearing fruit

Xi's visit to New Zealand in 2014 led to enduring cooperation and innovation

New Zealand kiwifruit scientist Sarah Pilkington has been working with Chinese colleagues to protect the fruit's genetic resource materials and cultivate diversity, a collaboration that is grounded in President Xi Jinping's 2014 state visit to New Zealand.

The establishment at that time of a China-New Zealand kiwifruit virtual joint laboratory by the Sichuan Provincial Academy of Natural Resource Sciences and the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research is among the cooperation projects that resulted from that visit.

During the visit, China and New Zealand signed a series of cooperation agreements and achieved a slew of concrete outcomes regarding exchanges in the fields of agriculture, culture, science and technology, trade, tourism and education, including the kiwifruit virtual joint laboratory.