Kelantan's Agriculture Minister visits Thailand

BANGKOK, January 17 (TNA) - Agriculture Minister of the Malaysian Kelantan State Dato Haji Je Abdullah Bin Manawi visited Thailand on Thursday to discuss technological cooperation with the Thai side, in the lead up to the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015. The visiting Kelantan Agriculture Minister met Thai Science and Technology Minister Worawat Aueapinyakul to discuss exchange of knowledge and expertise on agricultural development of both Malaysia and Thailand. Worawat said Thailand has biological diversity and has set up the Asian Microbiological Resources Centre, the largest one in the world, which can be used in agriculture, medicine and vaccine developments, making the Kingdom be prepared for tougher regional competition. The Malaysian Minister raised agricultural cooperation between the two neighbouring countries, covering government-to-government and private-to-private projects, and paid the most attention to using microorganisms to control pests. The Kelantan Agriculture Minister also asked about genetically-modified organism (GMO) crops in Thailand, in which they have remained in laboratory tests. The two neighbouring countries in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), meanwhile, plan to further expand bilateral cooperation on biological technology to jointly become a regional hub in the field in the future, based on, anticipatedly, expanding cooperation in the form of development partnership. The Kelantan Agriculture Minister also visited the Culture Collection Laboratory and Genome Laboratory to witness Thailand's progress on biological technology in order to expand bilateral cooperation for the sake of the AEC strength in relevant fields, once it is established over the next two years. (TNA)