Agriculture ministers from ASEAN countries and China, Japan and South Korea on Friday decided to continue agricultural cooperation in various areas.

The decision was announced by a joint press statement issued in Kuala Lumpur at the end of the third meeting of the ASEAN agriculture and forestry ministers and ministers of the three East Asian countries (ASEAN plus Three).

The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), founded in 1967, groups ten countries in the region with some 550 million people and the combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of about US$646 billion.

The ministers welcomed the new projects proposed for this year and the coming year, indicating that the continuous cooperation would be instrumental in fostering good relations and contributing to the stable and equitable development of agriculture, fisheries and forestry in the region.

The cooperation between ASEAN and the three countries covers six areas including food security, research and development on food, agriculture, fisheries and forestry, human resource development and trade facilitation for agricultural products in the region.

The ministers agreed that advancement of agricultural production was one of the most effective strategies for poverty reduction and economic development in the region, the statement said.

Recognizing that the stable supply of rice was key to regional food security, the ministers reaffirmed the importance of establishing the East Asia Emergency Rice Reserve System, it said.

Rice, 90 percent grown in Asia, is the staple food for about two-thirds of the world population. The United Nations General Assembly at its 57th session in December 2002 declared the year 2004 as the International Year of Rice.

For protection of forestry resources, the ministers called for collaboration between the governments and civil societies to preserve precious ecosystems of the forest and establish sustainable forestry in the region, it said.

The statement also expressed their full support to the accession of Cambodia to the WHO at the ministerial meeting in September this year.

The ASEAN plus Three cooperation was initiated at the ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur in December 1997.

(Xinhua News Agency August 23, 2003)