Bahrain : Bahrain and Cyprus on Monday said they would work closely on exchange of expertise in agriculture, sustainable water management and preservation of marine resources.
This was stated during a joint press briefing held by Essam Bin Abdullah Khalaf, Bahrain’s Minister of Works, Municipality Affairs and Urban Planning and his Cypriot counterpart Costas Kadis, Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment.
“The meeting was fruitful and we discussed various aspects of cooperation between the two friendly countries, particularly in the agricultural field and food security,” Khalaf said
The meeting reviewed Bahrain’s efforts in relation to the development of agriculture and the most prominent projects that the Ministry of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning is working on in this regard, he added.
Khalaf also briefed Kadis on national initiatives adopted in Bahrain to develop the agricultural sector.
“We exchanged views on various mechanisms for developing bilateral relations in the field of agriculture, and food security,” he said.
“We look forward to further strengthening the friendly relations of our countries and realising further milestones.”
Kadis said they had very fruitful meetings and thanked the Bahrain government for the very warm welcome and hospitality.
“Our discussions focused on collaboration on three main areas. First one is the Sustainable Management of our water resources, second is collaboration in the areas of agriculture and third is cooperation in the area of aquaculture,” he said.
“Our countries face similar challenges within the respect to sustainable water management, protection and utilization of water resources in taking into consideration climatic conditions prevailing in both countries.”
The limited water resources and the continuous increase of water demand necessitates to adopt a sustainable management of water resources as well as for securing additional water from non-conventional procedures such as wastewater reuse and desalination of sea water.
“We therefore believe that our countries could gain a lot through cooperation and sharing best practices in know-how in the field of water resources management and towards this direction we have drafted a memorandum of understanding with a focus on promoting cooperation in a number of areas relating to sustainable water management,” he said.
“We will have the input from our colleagues soon and then will be keen on signing the MoU. This will be a new start and collaboration between the two countries on this very critical issue of Sustainable Water Management. Relating to the Agriculture sector, Bahrain has very common characteristics again due to our climatic conditions prevailing in two countries. Given this opportunity today I explored with our counterparts the potential collaboration of drafting another MoU between the two countries in relation to agriculture, specifically introducing smart and agricultural, efficient water management in this sector.”
There is room for cooperation in aquaculture, he added. “Cyprus is well known for the quality of its aqua culture products, so we can share this experience with our Bahraini counterparts and we feel that we can work together in partnership.”
