The meeting was attended by agriculture and forestry ministers of ASEAN countries, of three partner countries namely China, Japan, and South Korea, and of India.
Also seen at the opening ceremony were Agriculture Minister Suswono, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Fadel Muhammad, and Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa.
In his opening address, Vice President Boediono said the 33rd AMAF would affirm ASEAN countries` commitment to cooperating in the field of agriculture, food, forestry, and fisheries at a higher and more advanced level.
But the vice president focused on one area of ​​cooperation which is increasingly urgent from year to year, namely in the field of food.
"Worldwide attention and ours in ASEAN lately is focused on a development that indicates the existence of a widening gap between consumption and world food production," Boediono said.
The vice president explained that seen from the urgency of food problem, ASEAN leaders in the 18th ASEAN Summit in May this year gave an explicit instruction to the ministers in the region to take concrete steps to answer the challenge of meeting the food needs.
In light of this, Boediono said the cooperation in the field of food, discussed in the AMAF, was getting more important in the context of ASEAN+3 both from the dimensions of the potential consumption and production.
"The ASEAN+3 forum will expand the options to address common challenges in the field of food, because the three ASEAN partner countries namely China, Japan, and South Korea have advanced technology and food safety system," the vice president noted.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Suswono said the the 33rd meeting and AMAF would yield an emergency rice reserve agreement to be signed at the meeting.
Earlier on Wednesday, ASEAN together with China, Japan, and South Korea (ASEAN+3) agreed to set aside set aside rice reserve of 787,000 tons to emancipate food emergency any time.
(Uu.O001/HAJM/F001)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
