Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
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Rome, SANA – Agriculture Minister Ahmad al-Qaderi met President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Gilbert F. Houngbo on the sideline of the 40th UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Conference held in Rome.
During the meeting, the two sides discussed means for addressing the suspension of the IFAD’s funding for the livestock resources development project in Syria, with al-Qaderi giving a detailed explanation of the project which the Ministry is still implementing with support from the Syrian government.
The Minister said that the project has already achieved successes, hoping that IFAD will reverse the decision to suspend its funding.
For his part, Houngbo said that he supports resuming IFAD’s work in Syria, and that the correct decision will be made after the work team tasked with assessing the state of the project is done with its work.
IFAD provided funding for the project via a concessional loan valued at USD 27.3 billion up until the funding was suspended in mid 2015. Until that point, up to 14,600 livestock breeders benefited form the project.
Hazem Sabbagh
