The 9th Meeting of ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve (APTERR) Council was held on 28 May 2021 via videoconference. It was organised by the APTERR Secretariat and hosted by the National Food Authority (NFA), Department of Agriculture, the Philippines.
The meeting was co-chaired by Atty. Judy Carol L. Dansal, Administrator of the NFA, and Ms. Liu Xiangzhou, Deputy Director of Asian and African Affairs Division, Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China.
One of the highlights in the meeting was the assurance of food security, which has become of utmost necessity on the global scale, especially in the emergency posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The APTERR mechanism therefore has been increasingly recognised as an effective and efficient element in safeguarding sustainable food security in the region. During 2020 - 2021, almost 2,000 MT of rice were distributed to mitigate the sufferings of the vulnerable people affected by the drastic impacts of COVID-19 through the APTERR’s Tier 3 programme.
Besides, the meeting was enthusiastic to engage more in the APTERR programmes and also to solidly support the APTERR Secretariat in achieving the APTERR’s goals and objectives on strengthening food security in the region.
This significant meeting was productive and achieve its purposes in discussing the direction of the APTERR Secretariat and its activities. Representatives from the APTERR members, the ASEAN Secretariat, the ASEAN Food Security Reserve Board (AFSRB) Secretariat, the ASEAN Food Security Information System (AFSIS) Secretariat and the APTERR Secretariat attended the meeting.
