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 Report by HE. Mohammad HattaAmbassador of the Republic of Indonesia to the Kingdom of Thailand on the Occasion of the Indonesia-Thailand Expert Group Meeting on Sustainable Agriculture and Food SecurityBogor, 5 August 2009
Your Excellency Ambassador of the Royal Kingdom of Thailand in Jakarta,Director of CAPSA, Representing UN-ESCAPYour Excellency Khun Theera Wongsamut, Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives of the Kingdom of ThailandYour Excellency Bapak Anton Apriyantono, Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Indonesia Distinguished delegates,Ladies and Gentlemen, First of all, I wish to extend my warmest welcome to all participants to my hometown, the City of Bogor. For our friends from Thai Delegation, and as a Bogorese myself, I am pleased to inform you that Bogor is not only home to the historical Indonesian Presidential Palace, but it is also home to one of the largest and oldest Botanical Gardens in Asia, home to the Institute of Agriculture of Bogor and home to the Center for Alleviation of Poverty through Secondary Crops’ Development in Asia Pacific or CAPSA, one of the 5 regional institutions of UN ESCAP whose base is in Bangkok. Let me also take this opportunity to deliver a brief yet dense note to the Ministers about this Expert Group Meeting on Sustainable Agriculture between Thailand and Indonesia. As two neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia, Thailand and Indonesia have a lot in common. One of them is agriculture that plays a very important factor to our peoples. We shared the same concern when the food price at international market was volatile and skyrocketing in early 2008. In this light, I note with great appreciation that Thailand and Indonesia have actively participated in the ESCAP’s High Level Regional Policy Dialogue on “The Food-Fuel Crisis and Climate Change: Reshaping the Development Agenda in respond to the Current Global Crisis” which was held in Bali in December 2008. I am more heartened to learn that the Bali Outcome of the ESCAP’s High Level Regional Policy Dialogue inspired as one of the activities of the Third Session of Joint Agricultural Working Group between Thailand and Indonesia which was held in Phuket in May 2009. The objectives of the Expert Group Meeting are to bring together policy makers, experts, and academics involved with sustainable agriculture from our two countries to discuss and exchange ideas, to share experiences and best practices of sustainable agriculture, and of course to build strong networking between our two countries. Your ExcellenciesDistinguished DelegatesLadies ad Gentlemen, It is really encouraging to see that the Thai Delegates come with strong delegation of 30 people and also the new Director of CAPSA, one of the regional institutions under UNESCAP And I am sure by looking at the total turnout; we will have very active and lively discussion throughout the Meeting. It is my fervent hope that our today Meeting will pave the way for the enhancement of mutually beneficial bilateral cooperation between Thailand and Indonesia, especially in the area of agriculture. In conclusion, I wish to reiterate my best wishes that our deliberation today will be crowned with a big success. I thank you. |
The demands of the globalization era have placed information as a very influencing resource. This globalization context is also unavoidable in the development of the national education policy that must be understood by university students, abroad scholars and Indonesian society in Thailand.
