On March 28th, 2018, the Director General of Myanmar’s Forest Research Institute (FRI) headed a 6-member delegation with delegates from the Global Environment Institute (GEI) to visit ICBR. CHEN Ruiguo, Deputy Director General of ICBR, met the delegation along with relevant department heads and experts.

CHEN started with a warm welcome to the delegation for paying this visit to the Centre and said that the visit provides a valuable opportunity for both sides to cooperate on bamboo projects in Myanmar. YU Yan, Deputy Director of the Department of International Cooperation of ICBR, gave a brief introduction on ICBR and the development of China's bamboo industries. The Director General of FRI remarked that China's bamboo and rattan industries enjoy advanced experience and technology, which Myanmar could learn from. Myanmar also boasts rich bamboo and rattan resources, and the government of Myanmar hopes to vigorously develop bamboo industries to achieve the sustainable development goals on forest conservation and poverty reduction. It is hoped that developing bamboo and rattan industries could be an important channel for the implementation of Myanmar’s nationally determined contributions under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The two sides had an in-depth exchange and discussion on potential project cooperation.

Before the meeting, the delegation was given a tour of the International Bamboo and Rattan Exhibition Room at ICBR.