Director General of America and Europe at the Foreign Ministry Retno Marsudi opened the event held jointly with the Agriculture Ministry.
The event consists of international training on fruit and vegetable post-harvest technology for Asia Pacific countries and apprenticeship program for Comoros farmers.
The five countries are Bangladesh, Fiji, Laos, Sri Lanka and Timor Leste.
In her address Retno said the two activities were one of the manifestations of the Indonesian government`s commitment to help develop the agriculture sector of fellow developing countries.
"The agricultural sector is the important asset of Indonesia`s soft power diplomacy and for more than three decades Indonesia has played an active role in facilitating the exchange of experience in the agricultural sector through training, apprenticeship and dispatch of skilled workers to various counties in Asia and the Pacific and Africa," she said.
She expressed her belief that developing countries could contribute to improving the global food security which currently came under the spotlight from the international community.
Secretary General of the Agriculture Ministry Hari Priyono meanwhile said the government`s policies on national food security had yielded fruits with the attainment of self-reliance in rice in 2008.
"The agricultural sector is a strategic sector in the Indonesian economy and the Indonesian government will always try to meet the national consumption needs to ensure the public access to foodstuffs which constitutes one of human beings` basic rights." he said.
"Through the two activities the Secretary General of the Agriculture Ministry expects that the participants could improve their technical competence so that it could be applied to support the development of the agricultural sector in their respective country," he said.
(T.KR-PPT/S012/HAJM/A014)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
