ASIAN BIOTECHNOLOGY CONSORTIUM PLANNED
IN DELHI
An Asian Biotechnology
Consortium is proposed to be set up in New Delhi and the Department
of Biotechnology (DBT) will be the Nodal Agency, under the aegis
of the Ministry of External Affairs. Twenty-two Asian countries
will come together for this under the Asia Cooperation Dialogue
(ACD) launched in Cha-am Thailand in June last year. India agreed
to take the lead in establishing the consortium to foster greater
cooperation among the ACD countries in Biotechnology.
A two-day meeting
of the ACD countries just concluded in New Delhi after considering
the concept paper prepared by India on the setting up of the Consortium
as well as modalities of going about it. The meeting called by
the MEA in association with DBT ended with a number of recommendations
including those on setting up of a Core- Fund, Membership and
Launching of an ACD Biotech website to network the countries of
the region for exchange of information and collective action.
The meeting agreed to collectively address issues related to the
development of Biotech infrastructure and expertise, bio-safety,
IPR issues as well as technology access, transfer and commercialisation,
for the socio-economic progress of the region.
In his opening remarks,
the Secretary in the MEA, Dr. R.M. Abhayankar, underscored the
need for a consensus among ACD member countries, to work together
for the socio-economic development of the region, exploiting the
full potential in Biotechnology. The Secretary DBT, Dr. Manju
Sharma in her message said, the dialogue should also address institutional
framework, biodiversity utilisation, capacity building and regulatory
guidelines.
The ACD member countries
are; Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Combodia, China,
Indonesia, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Laos (PDR), Malaysia,
Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka,
South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.
