On July 15, a delegation led by Dr. Wolfgang Plischke, a member of the Board of Management of Bayer AG, visited the institute and had a meeting with Director Yongbiao Xue. Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, nutrition and high-tech materials. The Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Bayer signed a Basic Agreement on Scientific and Technical Cooperation in 2001, and in the past few years the two parties have made important progress in promoting the collaboration. Dr. Plischke was also joined by Mr. Michael Koenig, President of Bayer Greater China Group, Mr. Bernd Naaf, Regional Head of Bayer CropScience Asia Pacific, Mr. Frank Dietich, Country Head of Greater China of Bayer CropScience, Ms. Tong Lin, Greater China Manager of BioScience and Mr. David Yeh, Market Manager of Greater ChinaBioScience.

Dr. Plischke and Mr. Frank Dietrich introduced the Bayer Group and the  Bayer CropScience, respectively. Director Xue also made an introduction of IGDB to the delegation. Both parties had a friendly discussion about the possibility to establish a long-term strategic partnership in the area of agricultural sciences. The Bayer delegation also had a tour of laboratory and the National Plant Gene Research Center (Beijing).