40 experts to attend int'l biotech forum

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna, Philippines – About 40 scientists, university professors, and government officials in eight countries will meet here starting today for a two-day international workshop on biotechnology.

Titled “Seminar-Workshop on Strategic Communication on Agricultural Biotechnology Using Risk Communication Methodology,” the science forum is organized by the Los Baños-based, government-hosted Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization-Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEAMEO-SEARCA) and Singapore-based Asia BioBusiness Ptc. Ltd.

The participants will come from the Philippine, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Peru.

The Asia Farmers’ Regional Network (ASFARNET), through its president, Rey Cabanao, will also participate in the workshop.

Dr. Gil Saguiguit Jr., SEARCA director, will deliver the welcome remarks. Resource speakers are Dr. Mariechel Jamias-Navarro, manager of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA)-Global Knowledge Center for Crop Biotechnology; Dr. Andrew Powell, Asia BioBusiness chief executive officer; and Dean Paul Teng of the Nanyang Technological University-National Institute of Education in Singapore.

SEARCA is one of the 20 “centers of excellence” of SEAMEO, an inter-government treaty body founded in 1965 to foster cooperation among Southeast Asian nations in the fields of education, science and culture.

For a decade now, SEARCA has been communicating biotechnology to the public through the Biotechnology Information Center (BIC), a joint project of the center and ISAAA.

Asia BioBusiness, for its part, has been organizing the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) High-Level Policy Dialogue on Agricultural Biotechnology since four years ago.

The dialogue addresses regulatory policy bottlenecks affecting the commercialization of agricultural biotechnology in APEC member-countries.

The seminar-workshop in Los Baños is in response to the recommendation of the 2010 APEC High-Level Policy Dialogue earlier held in Japan. It will address the needs and concerns of stakeholders involved in biotechnology through science-based communication that customizes messages for each stakeholder group.