Chinese Government provides $212,000 grant for Phase 1 of Tripartite Agricultural Cooperation Project (Linked to Record ID#64476)

At the fourth meeting of the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing in May 2012, Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton agreed that the two countries would conduct development cooperation in agriculture, health and human resources in other nations (US Department of State 2012).

This tripartite agricultural cooperation project Phase I (中美东农业技术合作项目一期) was initiated by the US and China in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) of Timor-Leste.

After a scoping mission conducted in February 2013 and subsequent follow-up meetings, a consensus was reached between China and the US to conduct trilateral aid cooperation on agricultural development and food security in Timor-Leste.

As part of USAID’s existing ‘Developing Agricultural Communities’ program from the US side, the aim was to improve food security through improved farming practices. According to the Timor Leste Aid Management Platform, the agreement for this project was signed in October 2013. The projected value of the initiative was USD 400,000 from the Chinese side and USD 5 million from the American side.

While the total actual commitment of the project from China was 212407.89 USD, the total actual disbursement from the Chinese side was 210,000 USD. The project started on October 2013 and completed on December 2014. This project is linked to Record ID#64476, Phase II of the tripartite agricultural cooperation project in Timor-Leste.