This day, 7 October 2022, marks a day of 11th anniversary of the APTERR which have the main purposes on strengthening food security, alleviating poverty, and eradicating malnourishment in the time of emergency in ASEAN Plus Three (APT) region. Through these years, the APTERR has been implementing its activities in response to emergency situation occurred in the member countries amid the increasing intensity and frequency of disasters caused by climate change and global warming. For the last decade, over 30,000 MT amount of rice contributed by Malaysia, Thailand, the People’s Republic of China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea were released in order to help around five million people in emergency situations in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam. This proved that the APTERR plays an important role in providing humanitarian assistance and malnourishment eradication responding to emergencies and disasters.
In order to achieve the goal, the APTERR Secretariat, under the guidance of Dr. Choomjet Karnjanakesorn, the new General Manager of APTERR Secretariat, continues to maintain the core activities of the APTERR and enhance visible roles of the APTERR by strengthening the collaboration and coordination with various regional and international agencies and institutions, namely ASEAN Secretariat (ASEC), Indonesian National Food Agency (NFA), World Food Programme (WFP) in Lao PDR, Mekong River Commission Secretariat (MRCS) in Lao PDR and MRC Flood Center in Cambodia, Amru Rice Co., Ltd. (the largest rice exporter in Cambodia), Geo-informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) - Thailand, Thai National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC), Thai Department of Foreign Trade as the ASEAN Food Security Reserve Board Secretariat (AFSRB Secretariat) and other institutions.
Recently, the climate change, COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical conflicts have posed severe challenges to global governance of food security, and that food crisis is increasingly expected to prolong and spread. In this relation, the APTERR Secretariat has to closely monitor the situations in order to assess adverse impacts on food security and livelihood of local people in the APT region. Therefore, the APTERR will proactively implement its mechanisms to maintain its utility and efficiency in the APT region in order to achieve humanitarian purposes as well as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
.
