Wednesday November 18, 2009
Malaysia wants road map for proper implementation of plan
By CHOI TUCK WO
ROME: Malaysia has urged the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to initiate a road map and action plan to progressively reduce hunger in the world.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said it was important for the global food agency to ensure proper and timely implementation of the plan.
“The hungry people depend on us to honour the promises that we made in 1996, 2002 and now in 2009,” he said when delivering the country statement at the World Summit on Food Security here.
He drew attention to the first summit 13 years ago that was dedicated towards eliminating hunger and achieving sustainable food security for all.
The second conference in 2002 renewed the commitments and resolved to accelerate the implementation of the World Food Summit Plan of Action, he added.
Back then, Muhyiddin said, the number of hungry people totalled 800 million.
“Today, after seven years, the FAO has convened once again for the third time ... and hunger afflicts more than one billion people,” he said.
Muhyiddin also said that developed nations must eliminate their huge farm subsidies and distorted support that was displacing production in developing countries.
“We have the means and resources to reduce global hunger.
“What we need now is to translate our common goals into tangible action at the global, regional and national levels,” he added.
Muhyiddin also noted that statistics indicated that hunger persisted in countries where 70% of the world’s poor lived and whose livelihoods were totally dependent on agriculture.
He said the FAO must ensure such households could attain a reasonable level of revenue.
“Poor countries with scarce financial resources were unable to commit sufficient funds to invest in agriculture to increase farm incomes.
“International financial institutions must thus commit a higher amount of funds to finance investment in agriculture in developing countries,” he added.
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