The G20 Joint Finance and Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting was held both on-site and virtually in Washington DC, USA on October 11. The meeting discussed such issues as the coordination between the Finance and Agriculture Ministries and relevant initiatives in response to global food security challenges.

The meeting was chaired by Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Finance Minister, and Syahrul Yasin Limpo, Agriculture Minister of Indonesia as the G20 Presidency, and attended by representatives from Finance and Agriculture Ministries of G20 members, invited countries and international organizations.

Wang Dongwei, Vice Minister of Finance of China, attended and delivered a speech at the meeting via video link.

Wang said that China attaches as always great importance to the issue of global food security. Under the Global Development Initiative (GDI) proposed by President Xi Jinping, food security has been identified as one of the eight key cooperation areas. Furthermore, China has recently proposed a cooperation initiative on global food security. As a developing country that has been the biggest provider of financial resources and experts, and implemented the largest number of projects under the South-South Cooperation framework of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), China has made great contributions to maintaining global food security with actual deeds.

Wang noted that systematic and collaborative efforts are needed to respond to global food security risks which could be caused by complicated factors. Wang stressed that we should give full play to the UN’s central coordinating role, and support the work of the FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the World Food Programme (WFP). In addition, Wang expounded on China's position on such issues as strengthening pragmatic cooperation and maintaining global food security with joint efforts under G20, stressing that China will work with all sides to promote global food security.