Qu Dongyu, China's deputy agricultural minister, was elected Sunday as the new director general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, the first person from a Communist country to hold the influential FAO post.
The agency's 194 member countries convened at the FAO headquarters in Rome to choose a successor to Jos Graziano da Silva of Brazil for the 4-year term.
Qu, 55, a biologist by training, won 108 votes, followed by France's Catherine Geslain-Laneelle with 71 votes and Georgia's Davit Kirvalidze with 12, according to official results. The United States had backed Kirvalidze.
The FAO, which has over 11,500 employees, works closely with other UN agencies to achieve the goal of a hunger-free world by 2030.
Today, more than 800 million people are facing hunger and many experts doubt that the 2030 goal will be reached.
Prior to the vote, Qu said he aims to focus on hunger and poverty eradication, tropical agriculture, drought land farming, digital rural development and better land design through transformation of agricultural production.
Also Read
An expert on agriculture and rural areas, he has worked in the field for more than 30 years.
"This is a special day," he said in his acceptance speech.
"This is our day."
Ahead of his election, he rejected claims that he would be beholden to instructions from Beijing, pledging that China would follow "FAO regulations and rules."
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content