AFRICAN NATIONS & MALAYSIA MUST TAP RESOURCES IN AGRI SECTOR

MOHD ISWANDI KASAN ANUAR

PUTRAJAYA, June 21 (Bernama) -- The highest leadership of African countries
must champion the transformation of agriculture into agro business to promote
sustainable agriculture practices, a delegate from Botswana said.

Dr Charity K. Kruger said the governments should provide a conducive
environment for agro business transformation such as finance, farmers' capacity
building and innovation through research and development.

"Malaysia and African countries must promote collaborations in areas of
mutual interest such as technology know-how, education, establishing
collaborative centres in sub-regions in Africa to facilitate continuous exchange
of ideas," he said.

Speaking at the plenary session on "The Business of Agriculture" at the
Ninth Langkawi International Dialogue (LID) 2011 here Tuesday, Kruger said
Malaysia and Africa must capitalise on available resources like Africa's vast
land while Malaysia has technological capabilities.

Meanwhile, every African country must encourage self-regulation through
industrial forums to transform the ICT industry, said a delegate from Lesotho,
Lira Ralebese.

He said there was a need for regulatory framework based on convergence of
ICT technologies as opposed to the current practice of separation of
technologies.

"Monitoring of standards to ensure high quality service delivery to users
must also need critical attention," he told the plenary session on "Promoting
ICT Enterprises".

Ralebese said Africa should take a leaf from Malaysia's ICT regulatory
framework, particularly with regard to convergence.

"There is a need for strong partnership to be created between African
countries and Malaysia to effect technology transfer.

"ICT has an important role to play in biodiversity and food security issues
in Africa, particularly through greenhouse farming," he said.

A delegate from Antigua and Barbuda, Dianne Lalla Rodrigues, said nurturing
small and medium enterprises (SMEs) should be a continuous process.

Speaking at the plenary session on "Nurturing SME start-ups in
Biotechnology", she said the process must be supported by strategies; research
and development; resources; quality and standards.

Technology could be transferred and adopted by every country as the private
sector in Africa was ready to embrace these initiatives, she added.