From January 7 to 8, a four-member delegation led by H.E. Farhod Arziev, Ambassador of Uzbekistan to China, visited Ningxia. Li Yifei, Secretary of the CPC Ningxia Committee and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Ningxia People’s Congress, met with the Ambassador and his delegation. Wang Li and Liu Jun, vice governors of Ningxia, were present at the meeting.

To ensure substantive outcomes from this visit, the Ningxia Foreign Affairs Office (NXFAO) aligned the needs of the Uzbek delegation with Ningxia’s unique strengths. With a focus on cooperation in desertification control, modern agriculture, culture and tourism, education, and people-to-people exchanges, NXFAO organized the China (Ningxia)-Uzbekistan Desertification Control Exchange Meeting. The event aimed to identify complementary strengths and explore new opportunities for collaboration.

At the meeting, representatives from eleven local government departments, research institutes, and enterprises, including the Ningxia Forestry and Grassland Administration, the Ningxia Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, the governments of Yinchuan, Shizuishan, Wuzhong, and Zhongwei cities, the Ningxia Communications Construction Co., Ltd. and the Ningxia Wozhiyuan Technology Co., Ltd., engaged in in-depth discussions. The participants expressed a good readiness to collaborate with the Uzbek partners.

The Ambassador spoke highly of Ningxia’s remarkable achievements in combating desertification. He noted that Ningxia has implemented a series of innovative practices and accumulated extensive experience in desertification control, saline-alkali land improvement, water-saving irrigation, modern agriculture, and desert ecotourism. Given the similar geographical and climatic conditions of Uzbekistan and Ningxia, the Ambassador highlighted the high compatibility and vast potential for bilateral cooperation. He expressed a strong hope to deepen the sharing of experience, technology, and talent cultivation to drive practical cooperation for mutual benefits and win-win results.‌

During his stay in Ningxia, the Ambassador took an interview with the local mainstream media and conducted field visits to the Baijitan National Nature Reserve and the Ningxia Polytechnic University. He gained insights into the integrated development model (consisting of frontline sand-fixing shrub forests, arbor-shrub mixed forests near residential areas, economic fruit forests, livestock breeding, crop cultivation, and ecotourism) of the sand industry and discussed effective pathways for cooperation in vocational education with local officials.