FOOD SECURITY COOPERATION AMONG D-8 MEMBERS IMPORTANT

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 26 (Bernama) -- Institutional development, capacity
building, marketing and public diplomacy for food security cooperation are
important for the Developing Eight (D-8) Organisation for Economic Cooperation
member countries.

Its secretary-general, Dr Dipo Alam, said the issues should be dealt with
equally among its members.

He said the three-day D-8 Ministers' Meeting on Food Security was important
and necessary to address the issues.

"Our meeting today is important and necessary, because our 930 million
people need enough food in a good quality and at affordable prices," Alam said
in his welcoming address here Thursday.

His speech was delivered by D-8 economist, Esen Gonen.

Alam said a working group on public-private sector partnership in food
security was expected to be set up to maintain and develop cooperation among
members in order to identify joint-investment potentials in fields such as
fertilisers, animal feed, seed and fisheries.

He also hoped that a bi-annual ministerial meeting on food security be held
to maintain the momentum and supervise the implementation of the programmes.

Besides hosts Malaysia, the countries attending the meeting are Iran,
Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Nigeria.

Saudi Arabia, Brunei and Qatar are attending as observers.

The meeting will dwell on the implementation of three initiatives for a
strategic cooperation among member countries.

They are production of quality fertilisers, animal feed and formation of a
seed bank.

-- BERNAMA