Left to right: Mr Hiroyuki Konuma (Assistant Director-General of FAO and Representative for Asia-Pacific); Mr José Graziano da Silva (Director-General of FAO); Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman (Minister of State for National Development and Defence); and Ms Tan Poh Hong (CEO of AVA).
The FAO leads international efforts to alleviate hunger and poverty by promoting agricultural development, improved nutrition and the pursuit of food security. Singapore was accepted into the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) as a member on 15 June 2013.
As an FAO country member, Singapore will now play a part in the global dialogue on food security and developments in agriculture, fisheries and food production. This will help Singapore to better anticipate potential supply disruptions and strengthen our preparedness for food-related crises.
In Singapore's acceptance speech, CEO of AVA, Ms Tan Poh Hong, reflected that while Singapore looks forward to learning from FAO and its existing member nations on ways to deal with challenges of food security, we also hope to share Singapore's unique urban solutions. These solutions could include AVA's R&D success in the areas of marine aquaculture, reduction in post-harvest losses, and the vertical vegetable farming system.
Minister of State for National Development & Defence, Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman, led officials from AVA and the Ministry of National Development to attend the 38th FAO Conference on 21-22 June 2013 in Rome, Italy. This is the first time Singapore is attending the Meeting, after joining the FAO.
Dr Maliki said, "While Singapore is not an agriculture country, we can aspire to play our part in global food security by addressing the aspects of the food production value chain where we can contribute to. The issue of food safety and security is even more critical for us as we import most of our food and from many parts of the world".