In 1998 a team of Chinese Experts, (Job Joint, Designers and Architects) arrived in Vanuatu after Prime Minister Mr. Barak Tame Sope previously led a delegation to the Peoples’ Republic of China. Former Minister of Agriculture Mr. Albert Ravutia requested an agriculture college set up and signed an Agreement on behalf of the Republic of Vanuatu with the Government of the Peoples’ Republic of China. The Chinese engineers under the company COVEC (China National Overseas Engineering Corporation) representing the government of the Peoples’ Republic of China arrived in December 2002 and signed a bilateral agreement with the then Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries and Quarantine Honourable Stephen Kalsakau on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Vanuatu. The agreement stipulated that the Government of the Peoples’ Republic of China will provide the engineering and finance of the construction while the government of the Republic of Vanuatu: The Vanuatu Agriculture College Act and a first ever budget for VAC was passed in Parliament in 2006.