3RD SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE [SDC2015]
5th - 7th of July 2015, Bangkok, Thailand
AETAS Lumpini Hotel
5th - 7th of July 2015, Bangkok, Thailand
AETAS Lumpini Hotel
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
Dr. Anthony M. Watanabe
Asia Clean Innovations
Throughout his 14 years working at the forefront of sustainability, Dr. Watanabe has been involved in helping private and public sector actors both deliver and derive value through environmental innovation. Whether developing CSR strategies for multinational companies like P&G, building low carbon roadmaps in emerging economies, or assisting clean technology companies with the financing and strategies for accessing new markets, Anthony’s work in sustainable business spans many sectors and geographies.
Through his leading consultancy in Canada, Innovolve, Anthony became a well-respected thought leader on water innovation, spearheading an annual national Water Summit, appearing regularly in the media, in print, and on the speaking circuit.
Following a year of travel around the world, in which he spent six months in ASEAN, Anthony decided to relocate to Bangkok to bring his sustainable business experience to bear in the region. His most recent work focuses on helping cleantech companies raise capital, M&A, and international trade.
In addition to pursuing some of the above activities, his latest business venture Asia Clean Innovations, focuses on brokering, investment, and market support for clean technologies in the ASEAN region.
The mission of Asia Clean Innovations is to help scale the adoption of energy and technologies in the ASEAN region to reduce environmental impact, improve lives, and create prosperity. The two game-changing technologies in focus include: Illumient (smart solar street lighting) and Echologics (acoustic leak detection in water pipes).
Asia Clean Innovations
Throughout his 14 years working at the forefront of sustainability, Dr. Watanabe has been involved in helping private and public sector actors both deliver and derive value through environmental innovation. Whether developing CSR strategies for multinational companies like P&G, building low carbon roadmaps in emerging economies, or assisting clean technology companies with the financing and strategies for accessing new markets, Anthony’s work in sustainable business spans many sectors and geographies.
Through his leading consultancy in Canada, Innovolve, Anthony became a well-respected thought leader on water innovation, spearheading an annual national Water Summit, appearing regularly in the media, in print, and on the speaking circuit.
Following a year of travel around the world, in which he spent six months in ASEAN, Anthony decided to relocate to Bangkok to bring his sustainable business experience to bear in the region. His most recent work focuses on helping cleantech companies raise capital, M&A, and international trade.
In addition to pursuing some of the above activities, his latest business venture Asia Clean Innovations, focuses on brokering, investment, and market support for clean technologies in the ASEAN region.
The mission of Asia Clean Innovations is to help scale the adoption of energy and technologies in the ASEAN region to reduce environmental impact, improve lives, and create prosperity. The two game-changing technologies in focus include: Illumient (smart solar street lighting) and Echologics (acoustic leak detection in water pipes).
Dr. Vasant Patil
CropLife Asia
The crop protection industry strongly supports the inclusion of regulatory harmonization in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2015. Regulatory harmonization for crop protection products is an essential component to the future success of agricultural trade, robust economic growth, and food security within the ASEAN community.
Agriculture is woven into the fabric of cultures, traditions, and societies across ASEAN – and crop protection technology is a fuel that propels this economic engine for the region today and tomorrow. Within the countries of ASEAN, the farmers, national economies, food/feed stakeholders, and end-users stand to gain the most from crop protection regulatory harmonization. In the ASEAN agricultural sector, harmonization can reduce complexity in trade; provide farmers with greater access to quality, advanced technologies; increase research and development investment; and build more shared regulatory capacity within the region.
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS:
RESULTING BENEFITS:
BACKGROUND & OVERVIEW:
For well over a decade, CropLife Asia has been a proud partner with ASEAN and its member states in advancing harmonization for the crop protection industry and larger chemical community.
Beginning in 2002, CropLife Asia worked with the ASEAN Secretariat’s MRL (Maximum Residue Limits) Expert Working Group to hold eight workshops and lead capacity-building efforts on a variety of technical topics leading to success in this area. This resulted in over 1000 MRLs being harmonized; and from 2013 onwards, the vast majority of these (more than 750) were adopted by a number of ASEAN member states as national standards.
Meanwhile, other noteworthy developments have occurred. Specifically, regulatory harmonization for cosmetics and medical devices has been realized; the ASEAN Secretariat has issued harmonized GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) standards for environmental management, food and worker health, and food quality; and health (pharmaceuticals) as well as bio-pesticides regulatory harmonization is also progressing.
An FAO project titled “Assisting countries in Southeast Asia toward achieving pesticide regulatory harmonization” was carried out during the 2009-2011 timeframe. This brought the participation of seven ASEAN countries, agreement on five regional guidelines on various aspects of pesticide management and registration, and published results in 2012.
With AEC 2015 at hand, the ASEAN crop protection community advocates the inclusion of regulatory harmonization for its industry as a means to support member states in their pursuit of unique national agendas and agricultural goals. This important step will have a positive impact in this respect by:
Putting ASEAN Farmers First through Greater Access to Technology
In many cases, the farmers of ASEAN are competing with large-scale agricultural enterprises within the western world who benefit from particularly responsive regulatory systems – ensuring their access to the latest technology in crop protection. A harmonized crop protection regulatory system in ASEAN would bolster the competitiveness of the region’s farmers by ensuring their access to these innovations in the industry and leveling the playing field.
Efficiency Enabler – Easing the Burden for Governments of ASEAN
The crop protection regulatory registration systems in a number of ASEAN countries are being taxed to their limits – many struggling to keep up, and some frozen entirely. By providing a harmonized regulatory framework for crop protection products in ASEAN, it would ensure sharing of the regulatory capacity, knowledge, and data among the member states – this would help minimize costs, redundancy, and waste these Governments can ill afford.
Helping Fill up the Tank of ASEAN’s Economic Engine – Agriculture
While agro-based exports from ASEAN account for roughly US$40 billion,[1] there’s more room for greater efficiency and growth. Among the top eight agro-producing ASEAN countries, agriculture accounts for around a 20% median average of national GDP, but the labor force working in the sector stands at an average of 46%.[2] Regulatory harmonization for crop protection in ASEAN will help address this disparity and unleash the full potential of the region’s agricultural sector.
ASEAN Meeting the Food Security Challenges of 2025
The collective GDP for ASEAN is projected to overtake two of the global first-world countries’ economies by 2025 – UK in 2020 and Japan in 2025. 3 At the same time, the world’s population is expected to grow by one billion4 and ASEAN will add almost 60 million more individuals alone.5 Having a harmonized regulatory framework for crop protection products in ASEAN will better position member states to ensure national food security by way of shared capacity as well as greater access to advancements in crop protection technology.
CropLife Asia
The crop protection industry strongly supports the inclusion of regulatory harmonization in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) 2015. Regulatory harmonization for crop protection products is an essential component to the future success of agricultural trade, robust economic growth, and food security within the ASEAN community.
Agriculture is woven into the fabric of cultures, traditions, and societies across ASEAN – and crop protection technology is a fuel that propels this economic engine for the region today and tomorrow. Within the countries of ASEAN, the farmers, national economies, food/feed stakeholders, and end-users stand to gain the most from crop protection regulatory harmonization. In the ASEAN agricultural sector, harmonization can reduce complexity in trade; provide farmers with greater access to quality, advanced technologies; increase research and development investment; and build more shared regulatory capacity within the region.
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS:
- Expedited testing and approval of new crop protection products
- Supported mutual acceptance of data for product registration leveraging the competence among ASEAN member states
- Incentives that encourage investment in crop protection R&D within ASEAN
- Adopted evidence-based scientific approach on evaluation and approval of products, balancing risks and benefits
- Harmonized labelling standards, including use of pictograms and safety phrases for effective communication to protect farmers and the environment
- Adoption of a uniform quality standard to facilitate trade
- Shared competency, facilities and best practices to support inter-regional anti-counterfeiting initiatives
- Adopted Codex and ASEAN MRLs into national standards
- Formalized effective mechanism with ASEAN to facilitate acceptance of export crop commodities by importing countries
RESULTING BENEFITS:
- Ensures access to the latest technology and innovations for farmers through the registration of new products in a speedier manner
- Provides protection for human health and the environment by adopting a science-based risk assessment approach – taking into account agricultural conditions and practices in ASEAN
- Ensures responsible use of products through implementation of uniform labelling guidelines across ASEAN
- Makes certain high quality standards are applied to all crop protection products in the ASEAN market
- Facilitates and promotes global, regional and intra-ASEAN agricultural commodity trade by reducing non-tariff trade barriers and ensuring compliance with global best practices
BACKGROUND & OVERVIEW:
For well over a decade, CropLife Asia has been a proud partner with ASEAN and its member states in advancing harmonization for the crop protection industry and larger chemical community.
Beginning in 2002, CropLife Asia worked with the ASEAN Secretariat’s MRL (Maximum Residue Limits) Expert Working Group to hold eight workshops and lead capacity-building efforts on a variety of technical topics leading to success in this area. This resulted in over 1000 MRLs being harmonized; and from 2013 onwards, the vast majority of these (more than 750) were adopted by a number of ASEAN member states as national standards.
Meanwhile, other noteworthy developments have occurred. Specifically, regulatory harmonization for cosmetics and medical devices has been realized; the ASEAN Secretariat has issued harmonized GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) standards for environmental management, food and worker health, and food quality; and health (pharmaceuticals) as well as bio-pesticides regulatory harmonization is also progressing.
An FAO project titled “Assisting countries in Southeast Asia toward achieving pesticide regulatory harmonization” was carried out during the 2009-2011 timeframe. This brought the participation of seven ASEAN countries, agreement on five regional guidelines on various aspects of pesticide management and registration, and published results in 2012.
With AEC 2015 at hand, the ASEAN crop protection community advocates the inclusion of regulatory harmonization for its industry as a means to support member states in their pursuit of unique national agendas and agricultural goals. This important step will have a positive impact in this respect by:
Putting ASEAN Farmers First through Greater Access to Technology
In many cases, the farmers of ASEAN are competing with large-scale agricultural enterprises within the western world who benefit from particularly responsive regulatory systems – ensuring their access to the latest technology in crop protection. A harmonized crop protection regulatory system in ASEAN would bolster the competitiveness of the region’s farmers by ensuring their access to these innovations in the industry and leveling the playing field.
Efficiency Enabler – Easing the Burden for Governments of ASEAN
The crop protection regulatory registration systems in a number of ASEAN countries are being taxed to their limits – many struggling to keep up, and some frozen entirely. By providing a harmonized regulatory framework for crop protection products in ASEAN, it would ensure sharing of the regulatory capacity, knowledge, and data among the member states – this would help minimize costs, redundancy, and waste these Governments can ill afford.
Helping Fill up the Tank of ASEAN’s Economic Engine – Agriculture
While agro-based exports from ASEAN account for roughly US$40 billion,[1] there’s more room for greater efficiency and growth. Among the top eight agro-producing ASEAN countries, agriculture accounts for around a 20% median average of national GDP, but the labor force working in the sector stands at an average of 46%.[2] Regulatory harmonization for crop protection in ASEAN will help address this disparity and unleash the full potential of the region’s agricultural sector.
ASEAN Meeting the Food Security Challenges of 2025
The collective GDP for ASEAN is projected to overtake two of the global first-world countries’ economies by 2025 – UK in 2020 and Japan in 2025. 3 At the same time, the world’s population is expected to grow by one billion4 and ASEAN will add almost 60 million more individuals alone.5 Having a harmonized regulatory framework for crop protection products in ASEAN will better position member states to ensure national food security by way of shared capacity as well as greater access to advancements in crop protection technology.
CONFERENCE PARTNERS:
Tomorrow People
Tomorrow People Organization
Dusana Vukasovica 73 11 000 Belgrade Serbia Tel. +381 62 680 683 www.tomorrowpeople.org |
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