In February 2021, China BlueChemical Ltd.^* (“CBC”) and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (“CAAS”) signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement. Zhang Hecheng, Secretary of the Party Group of CAAS, Chen Bi, Vice President of CNOOC, Wang Weimin, Chairman of the Board of CBC and Hou Xiaofeng, CEO and President of CBC attended the signing ceremony.

Chen Bi pointed out in his speech that CBC and CAAS are both agriculture-related units, and the strengthening of cooperation between the two units can help to promote green agriculture first, help to solve the “three rural areas” issues, rural revitalization and the development of agricultural science and technology; help to strengthen the foundation of agriculture, improve the level of agricultural science and technology, and create better conditions for our environment; help to better play the synergistic effect and promote the healthy and sustainable development of the two units; help to play an important role in promoting agricultural science and technology innovation and training agricultural research talents; help scientific research institutes and enterprises to cooperate for win-win and common development.

Zhang Hecheng said in his speech that the strengthened cooperation between CBC and CAAS reflects the concern of CNOOC for the “three rural areas” and the care of and attention to science and technology of CNOOC. CAAS will continue to take the responsibility of solving the major scientific and technological problems of the agricultural development of the PRC, rely on the solid strength of CBC in fertilizer production and operation, open research resources in all aspects, and contribute more value to the development of “three rural areas” of the PRC by promoting the improvement of the research capability of enterprises.

CAAS is a vice-ministerial-level unit directly under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, with 17 academicians and 334 national awards in total, and has been highly concerned and supported by the Party and State leaders since its establishment in 1957. Over the past 20 years, CBC and CAAS have jointly undertaken 6 large-scale science and technology projects such as the National 863 Program and the National Science and Technology Support Program, and achieved remarkable results in the creation of crop-specific compound fertilizers and the research and development of value-added fertilizers, etc. The results of the cooperation have won the first prize of the Great Northern Agricultural Science and Technology Award (大北農科技獎), the Outstanding Science and Technology Innovation Award of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (中國農業科學院傑出科技創新獎), and the first prize of the Beijing Science and Technology Award (北京市科學技術獎), etc. They have jointly led the compound fertilizer of the PRC embark on the road of specialization. Currently, 70% of the professional compound fertilizer formulas in the market come from the cooperation achievements, which jointly opened a new field of value-added fertilizer, making it the largest new industry of green and efficient fertilizer in the world. Based on the successful cooperation experience in the past 20 years and combined with the resource endowment of both parties, CBC and CAAS will carry out comprehensive and in-depth cooperation in policy research, agricultural science and technology, rural revitalization strategy and integration of science and enterprise development, to accelerate the self-reliance and self-improvement of agricultural science and technology, promote the upgrading of the fertilizer industry, and make joint efforts to realize agricultural modernization, so as to boost the high-quality development of the agriculture in the PRC.

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