FAO appoints the first Chinese as Director-General
The Chinese candidate for the position of Director-General of UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) was elected today with 108 votes out of 191 casts. The election took place during the 41st session of the FAO Conference (22-29 June 2019), the highest governing body of the Organization.
Qu Dong Yu, who was born in 1963, is currently Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China. He is also the first Chinese to be appointed as Director-General of FAO. Qu Dongyu will be FAO's ninth Director-General since the Organization was founded on October 16, 1945.
Since the establishment of FAO in 1945, there have been eight Directors-General:
• Sir John Boyd Orr, United Kingdom, 1945-1948
• Norris E. Dodd, United States, 1948-1954
• Philip Vincent Cardon, United States, 1954-1956
• Binay Ranjan Sen, India, 1956-1967
• Addeke Hendrik Boerma, Netherlands, 1968-1975
• Edouard Saouma, Lebanon, 1976-1993
• Jacques Diouf, Senegal, 1994-2011
• José Graziano da Silva, Brazil, 2011-2019.
Qu competed against Davit Kirvalidze (Georgia) and Catherine Geslain-Laneelle (France) and won in the first round. China is one of the largest contributors at FAO's budget, $ 2.6 billion, along the US, Germany, and Japan.
The term of the new Director-General, who will succeed Brazil’s José Graziano da Silva, will start on 1 August 2019 and run to 31 July 2023.
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