The visiting team at the Gansu Research Institute of Light Industry.

The AKRSP is the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) implementation partner for the Support to Rural Livelihoods and Climate Change Adaptation in the Himalaya (Himalica) initiative’s pilot project in Pakistan. It is part of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN). The Gansu Light Industries’ Science Research Institute, on the other hand, is based in Lanzhou city with multiple functions such as business incubation, laboratory testing, online selling and marketing, market research, packing and packaging, online training, and industry collaboration.

Representatives of the AKRSP and the Gansu Light Industries’ Science Research Institute signing the MOU.

Both the AKRSP and the Gansu Light Industries’ Science Research Institute will work together to conduct technical analyses and incubate innovations to develop a series of sea buckthorn-based products. Technology and knowledge transfer on standardization, quality, processing, and marketing along with packing and packaging are priority areas of exchange and improvements. This partnership will also help build the capacities of relevant stakeholders through trainings, exchanges, apprenticeships, and private sector partnerships to promote the industry.

The MOU was one of the outcomes of a recent exposure visit jointly organized by ICIMOD and the AKRSP for a team of yak value chain actors from Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral, Pakistan, to Gansu province, China, under the leadership of Ruijin Long, Senior Ecologist at ICIMOD.

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