Today, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Bulgaria, Mariam Aftab, paid a visit to the Agricultural Academy of Bulgaria (AAB) and met with its President, Prof. Eng. Martin Banov. Prof. Elena Todorovska, Chief Scientific Secretary, and Mr. Ivan Nenov, Director of AAB’s International Cooperation, joined Prof. Banev.
The purpose of the meeting was to ink a Memorandum of Understanding on Scientific and Technological Cooperation in the Area of Agricultural Research between both the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) and the Agricultural Academy of Bulgaria (AAB), and to also discuss potential routes of collaboration/cooperation in the field of agricultural research and technology between the two countries.
Prof. Banev welcomed the Ambassador to the Academy and expressed his delight that the two countries had finally signed this MoU after years of talks. The signing of this Memorandum of Understanding, he said, would be the first step toward a more meaningful and beneficial collaboration between the two countries in the crucial subject of agricultural technologies and research.
Ambassador Mariam Aftab expressed her gratitude to the President of AAB for the warm welcome. She emphasised that both Pakistan and Bulgaria are significantly reliant on their agricultural sectors, and that the two countries might benefit greatly from each other’s experiences and knowledge in agricultural-related technologies. PARC was interested in learning from Bulgarian experiences in the fields of germplasm for cereals, fruits and vegetable crops, value-adding and reducing post-harvest losses in fruits and vegetables, processing and value-adding of milk and meat products, veterinary vaccine production technology and prevention of communicable diseases in animals, exploitation of alternative energy resources for agriculture, and collaboration in farm machinery fabrication, she said.
The Ambassador also expressed her gratitude for the active engagement between the two institutions and pledged her full support for any suggestions that the two institutions finalise in the future under the MoU. She also informed the President that she would be meeting with Bulgaria’s new Ministers of Agriculture and Education soon to explore the possibilities of student/professor exchanges as well as the awarding of scholarships to students from both countries on a reciprocal basis.
The Ambassador and the President of AAB signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Scientific and Technical Cooperation in the Area of Agricultural Research at the conclusion of the meeting.