The 6th Meeting of ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve (APTERR) Council was held on 13 – 14 March 2018 in Vientiane, Lao PDR. The Meeting was organised by the APTERR Secretariat and hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF), Lao PDR. The Meeting was attended by member countries, the ASEAN Secretariat, the ASEAN Food Security Reserve Board Secretariat and APTERR staff members. H.E. Thongphath Vongmany, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Forestry of Lao PDR presided over this meeting.
The APTERR Council meeting is held annually for discussing direction of the APTERR Secretariat and its activities for the following year. For this year, the Meeting was co-chaired by Mr. Savanh Hanephom, Deputy Director General of the Department of Planning and Finance, MAF, Lao PDR and Mrs. Ma Hongtao, Deputy Director General of the Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, the People’s Republic of China. Discussion issues were on financial contribution, amendment of the attachment of the APTERR Agreement, work plans and budget plans as well as achievements on emergency rice releases to member countries under Tier 3 Programme for strengthening food security and alleviating poverty.
Afterwards, participants visited the warehouse of the government of Lao PDR, storing APTERR Tier 3 rice stocks. This rice will be distributed by April 2018 to help the poor affected by floods under Tier 3 Programme.
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