"We have agreed to increase trade and investment related to food security apparently because both countries are rice producers. The President has called on Vietnam to increase the production and productivity (of its staple food), along with us," she said on the sidelines of the 18th ASEAN Summit at the Jakarta Convention Hall on Sunday.
She made it clear that the agreement with Vietnam was a manifestation of the two countries` support for ASEAN food security.
According to her, ASEAN economic ministers were in the process of discussing the mechanism of managing a food security system.
"This means that (the rice) will be used not only to meet emergency need but also to stabilize (its price)," she said.
ASEAN member countries were both main rice producers and importers and that any policy they would take would influence rice prices in the region, she said.
She said the ASEAN economic ministers also discussed the coordination of efforts to increase productivity including how to optimize relevant institutes such as research institutes.
In his opening speech of the 18th ASEAN Summit at the Jakarta Convention Hall on Saturday President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said food security would be a great challenge for ASEAN, therefore clear and concrete cooperation amongst ASEAN was needed.
The ASEAN member countries must prepare food stocks considering the current increasing food and energy price fluctuations in the world markets, he said.
One of the steps that ASEAN must immediately take was the implementation of "Integrated Food Security Framework" comprehensively especially in the research and development field, and investment in food, he added.
ASEAN must also pay attention to the formulation of food reserve system that could help farmers overcome poverty, President Yudhoyono as the ASEAN Chair 2011 said.(*)
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Editor: Ruslan Burhani
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
