On April 29, the Pointe-Noire Municipal Government of the Republic of Congo informed in its letter that Mayor Jean François Condor signed official documents to approve for the establishment of the SPIA-Congo Distant Agricultural Science and Education Service Center in Pointe-Noire of the Republic of Congo. Mayor Jean François Condor said that the center was another important cooperation project of the institute to participate in the Suzhou--Pointe-Noire Sister City Program construction; boasting great significance for the local agricultural development, it would surely serve as another signature achievement of the sister city relations of the two cities.

From 2017, the institute contacted with the Pointe-Noire Municipal Government of the Republic of Congo to participate in the sister city program construction and conduct exchanges and cooperation in agriculture through the Suzhou Foreign Affairs Office. Our institute once dispatched delegations to visit the Republic of Congo and received Congolese agricultural investigation groups to have exchanges and take training in our institute. In 2018, our institute recruited Congolese students in the institute-government cooperation program to have specialized learning on modern agriculture in our institute and cultivated technical talents in agriculture for Pointe-Noire, the Republic of Congo.

In 2020, the institute promoted the construction of the SPIA-Congo Distant Agricultural Science and Education Service Center and the one-stop service network platform for distant agricultural science and education in the Republic of Congo and conducted agricultural technical guidance and science and education training to the Republic of Congo through the platform. The center was officially established in the Republic of Congo, marking a new important platform and carrier of the institute to serve the countries along the “Belt and Road” and export China’s experience in agricultural science and education. Next, the institute will enhance connection with the Pointe-Noire Municipal Government and accelerate the construction of the software and hardware facilities of the center. After its completion, the center will give further scope to the platform and deliver more and better contributions to new product, technology and model promotion and application, distant guidance and demonstration for production, overseas skilled talent cultivation and stimulation for the local peasants to increase production and become prosperous.