The IPPC Secretary's Message on the New Year Greetings for 2017

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the IPPC Secretariat, I would like to express my sincere greetings to all of you for the Holiday Season, and also show my high appreciation for your strong support and positive contribution to the IPPC throughout 2016.

The year of 2016 has been a milestone for the IPPC, as it is the first year for the whole convention to implement the IPPC annual themes towards 2020. This year has been also remarkable, as several important activities were organized for the first time, such as presentation of keynote address on the IPPC annual theme Plant Health and Food Security at CPM; several record numbers achieved, such as completion of 16 ISPMs for adoption; and several new IPPC projects obtained, such as STDF project on ePhyto and FAO-IPPC-China project on Capacity Development. And as well, 2016 has been memorable for the IPPC, as the initiative for developing an International Year of Plant Health in 2020 (IYPH 2020) was endorsed at the 25th CoAG and then at the 155th FAO Council.

2017 is coming up another important year for the IPPC, as it will be the year for implementation of the IPPC annual theme Plant Health and Trade Facilitation, and also a year for the 65th Anniversary of the IPPC. We are confident that 2017 will be an even better year for the IPPC with all your continual support and dedication in strengthening delivery the IPPC work programme.

As a token of our appreciation, attached please find here the link of the 2017 IPPC Calendar for extensive sharing.

Once again, I thank you all and wish you a Happy New Year of 2017.

Jingyuan Xia

IPPC Secretary