The signing ceremony of the China Biodiversity Facility Grant Framework Agreement between the French Development Agency (AFD) and China was held in the Embassy of France in China on November 4, 2022.  

 

Cheng Zhijun, Director-General of the Department of International Economic and Financial Cooperation of China’s Ministry of Finance (MOF), attended and addressed the signing ceremony. 

 

Lu Jin, Deputy Director-General of the Department of International Economic and Financial Cooperation of the MOF, and Amélie Aubert, Regional Director of the AFD office in China, signed the grant framework agreement, which was witnessed by Cheng, Laurent Bili, the French Ambassador to China and Jorge Toledo, EU Ambassador to China. 

 

In 2020, the AFD applied for a technical assistance grant of 13 million euros from the European Union to help China establish a biodiversity facility and promote its biodiversity protection and development.

 

Seven million euros of the grant, on which the agreement was signed by the MOF and the AFD, will be used for technical assistance and capacity building during the implementation of AFD’s projects in China. 

 

The signing of the agreement indicates that both the Chinese and French governments attach great importance to deepening bilateral loan cooperation, which is conducive to biodiversity protection in China and facilitates responses to global biodiversity challenges.