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United Nations FAO and GF Securities Call for Innovative and Sustainable Poverty Reduction Villages

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July 6, 2018, The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and GF Securities (GFS), signed a Letter of Intent in Rome, Italy, to develop "United Nations Exemplary Sustainability Villages," throughout China. The two partners expressed their willingness to form a fruitful partnership in order to contribute to China’s rural revitalization and to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

FAO with its long-term experience and proven successes in rural development has worked closely with the Government of China and other participants to empower small-scale farmers to promote sustainable agriculture over the past decades. GFS, as a representative of the Chinese private sector with strong corporate social responsibility, shares FAO’s goal of reducing poverty through innovation.

Under their cooperation framework, FAO and GFS intend to deepen their collaboration which could potentially lead to a poverty-relief project consisting in implementing SDG Villages in impoverished counties. The goal would be to educate farmers by endowing them with the necessary knowledge and skills, and promote smart and green agriculture.

“The SDG Village Project under discussion holds a lot of potential for China’s poverty reduction and the prosperity of its agricultural sector,” said FAO Deputy Director-General Laurent Thomas. “China is facing numerous unprecedented challenges that require targeted and innovative approaches through the engagement of multiple stakeholders. New partnerships such as the one with GG Securities endow us with further possibilities to contribute to global sustainable development and tackle persisting or emerging challenges, "he added.

 “GF Securities is willing to make available 1 million USD to cooperate with FAO, using comparative advantages of both sides to establish a model of agriculture plus finance plus e-commerce. The goal is to help achieve the SDGs in China and potentially replicate this model to other parts of the world, ” said Sun Shuming, Chairman of GF Securities. The comments were made at during the Letter of Intent Signing ceremony, hosted on 6 July, 2018 at FAO Headquarters in Rome.

Before the signing, GF Securities also attended FAO’s Investment Days Event on 4 July at FAO Headquarters in Rome, and expressed their support to FAO. “For many  years, FAO has closely focused on the goal of reducing poverty, and helped the member countries to develop their agricultural sectors in various forms and made outstanding contributions to the support of billions of people around the world. In the future, GFS will work with FAO and invest resources to help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals,” said Zhang Shaohua, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of GFS. Innovation for Better Investments is the theme of this year’s event that aims to explore the latest trends and thinking relevant to FAO’s work of supporting investments in member countries.

 Starting from 2010, for 8 years we have actively worked with the government departments of China, developing strong cooperative relationships to practically comprehend the fundamental issues surrounding the impoverished regions of China. According to local conditions, we provide working solutions, to efficiently implement poverty relief projects. Presently, GF securities has invested more than RMB 17 million for providing poverty relief to a national-level impoverished county, 3 municipal villages, and 26 rural villages. The results have been significant, raising 677 individuals and 180 impoverished households out of poverty, receiving strong positive feedback from villagers and local municipal governments.