Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Quoc Doanh spoke highly of APTERR activities, saying the organisation had provided swift relief for countries hit by disasters, such as the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan.
Ensuring food security, especially in such emergency circumstances, required timely joint efforts from all regional nations, Doanh said, so the meeting should focus on amendments to the rules and procedures for financial management of APTERR.
Participants also discussed co-operation mechanisms between ASEAN and APTERR and their action plan for the 2014-15 period.
APTERR was established in 2012 and includes Japan, the Republic of Korea and China in addition to the 10 ASEAN member countries. The organisation aims to deal with food shortages caused by natural disasters or man-made calamities through the provision of food assistance and nutrition improvement programmes to people in need.
