The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Czech Republic are preparing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on “Cooperation in the Agricultural Sector” following a May 5 meeting at the agriculture ministry’s headquarters.

Minister of Agriculture Veng Sakhon posted on social media after the meeting, saying that he and the Czech ambassador Martin Vávra had held discussions on several important subjects ahead of the MoU signing, which will happen in the near future.

The subjects of discussion, he said, were short- and long-term human resource training, the exchange of visits of officials to learn and share experiences, development in the freshwater aquatic sector, agricultural modernisation, and capacity building on product processing.

“After a thorough discussion, both parties agreed to prepare an MoU on agricultural cooperation between the two countries. The clauses in the MoU will be implemented to ensure its fruitful for the interests of the two countries,” said Sakhon on his Facebook.

He said he had a strong expectation that the agreement will come into force soon and be beneficial for Cambodia – which is in need of training and upgrades to the quality and productivity of its agricultural products in order to respond to the demands of export markets, particularly European countries.

Sakhon also took the occasion to thank the government of Czech for buying more than 7,000 tonnes of Cambodian milled rice in 2021. He expected the volume to increase in the future.