MOBILISE FUNDS TO TACKLE FOOD SECURITY IN D8

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 26 (Bernama) -- Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has called on the
Developing Eight (D8) members to explore the possibility of providing
asssistance to each other and mobilising funds in a coordinated and
efficient manner to address food security in the grouping of Muslim nations.

The Malaysian prime minister said no country in the world could claim
self-suffiency in all food products and in ensuring national food security.
Therefore a new global alliance in food and agriculture between food-surplus and
food-decifit economies was required.

"Among the D8 countries, we must continue to forge a concrete mechanism that
encourages participation from both the public and private sectors so that each
of us can leverage on our strengths and competitive advantange to assist other
D8 countries," he said at the opening of the D8 Ministers Meeting on Food
Security here Thursday.

His speech was delivered by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak.

The countries that make up the D-8 are Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh,
Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Egypt and Nigeria.

Abdullah said the D8 cooperation in agriculture and food production could be
strengthened based on the Guiding Principles of the D8 Roadmap (2008-2018).

Abdullah said the D8 governments and private sectors would have to work in
concert with each other to improve and strengten food security and facilitate
food availability and access in D8 countries.

"In this respect, governments are to act as enablers and facilitators. The
private sector in our member countries will have to play a more active role in
the implementation of strategic commercial projects in D8 countries."

While the focus of the meeting here was to promote joint projects in the
production of animal feed, fertilisers and creation of seed banks, Abdullah
said, it was hoped that the discussion would not fail to include elements of
facilitation for greater D8 private sector cooperation in agriculture.

Among them was the implementation of the D8 Preferential Trade Agreement
(PTA), of which Malaysia is a signatory.

"The reduction of tariffs between member countries and the adoption of the
PTA by all member countries would indeed encourage freer and a higher volume of
trade among D8 economies," he said.

Abdullah said that although the D8 was yet to be in the same league as
other well established economic development alliances, Malaysia believed that it
had the potential to become a formidable economic bloc and to be a significant
voice for developing countries on the global stage.

However, he said, much of the success of D8 cooperation would hinge largely
on the combined efforts of the private sectors of all member countries to forge
greater business alliances and transactions.

Abdullah said those gathered here for the D8 meeting on food security
should take stock of what had transpired in the past one year and chart
collective response in providing enough food to the people at affordable price.

In 2008, the markets were dominated by widespread global price hikes of
nearly major food and feed products, largely fuelled by soaring petroleum
prices.

He said that while some commodity price levels had stabilised of late, over
the medium to long term food prices were expected to remain significantly
higher than their 2004 levels, which could pose a continuing global challenges.

On top of that, he said, the world was in the midst of a serious financial
and economic crisis, and the scenerio had revived fears of food shortages and
high prices.

Abdullah said he hoped that the meeting would encourage the private sectors
of D8 countries to create joint ventures in the establishment of fertiliser
plants, animal feed and seed banks.

He also hoped that the meeting could adopt common and mutually recognised
stardards for fertilisers and animal feed which take into consideration
increasing crop yield and production as as well as safeguarding the environment
and human health.

It was also hoped that the meeting could promote collaborative research and
technology transfer in germplasm collection and preservation and strengthen
capacity, he said.

"By sharing our experience in dealing with food security issues in our
respective countries and promoting joint venture projects it will further
strengthen our economies and make us more resilient in facing food security
challenges," he said.

-- BERNAMA