and Aquatic Genetic Resources

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By

Dr. Te-yeh Ku

Coordinator for the ATC¡¦s Lead Shepherd

Director General of International Cooperation Department

Council of Agriculture

Chinese Taipei

Honorable Dr. Cheng-Taung Wang, Director-General of the Taiwan Livestock Research Institute; Mr. Chairman, Dr. Bao-Ji Chen, Director-General of the Animal Industry Department, Council of Agriculture; Distinguished Resource Speakers; Members of my fellow delegations; Ladies and Gentlemen:

First of all, as the Lead Shepherd of Agricultural Technical Cooperation Experts Group (or ATC Experts Group for short), I would like to extend my heartfelt welcome to all resource speakers and member delegations to attend this important Workshop, the APEC-ATC Workshop on Conservation and Utilization of Farm Animal and Aquatic Genetic Resources. I would also like to congratulate Director-General Wang of the TLRI and his staff for their great efforts in timely organizing this meaningful and useful workshop. It is our pleasure to act as your host and we are honored by your participation.

APEC Agricultural Technical Cooperation (ATC) was initiated at the APEC Leaders Meeting held in Bogor, Indonesia in November 1994, and had been formalized as an Experts Group of APEC by members¡¦ strong support and the endorsement of APEC Senior Officials, Ministers and Leaders in November 1996. Chinese Taipei has been honored to serve as

the Lead Shepherd of ATC since 1995. This Group shares the view that agricultural technical cooperation, together with agricultural resources, will lead to the improvement of food production capability and quality in the APEC region. The ATC initiative is aimed to enhance the capability of agriculture and its related industries to contribute to the region's economic growth and social well-being.

To foster the agricultural development in this region, ATC as a group had identified seven priority areas for cooperation and their respective action plans had also been formulated in 1995. Among the seven areas, Conservation and Utilization of Plant and Animal Genetic Resources is considered by the Group as one of the key elements for enhancing the sustainable productivity of quality food. Chinese Taipei was elected to serve as the Shepherd for this cooperative area.

Genetic resources provide the sources of disease and pest resistance, stress tolerance and other desirable traits for not only conventional improvement but also modern biotechnology applications for crop and animal improvement. Also they ensure genetic diversity for ecological balance. In view of the mankind's long-term needs and rapidly disappearing of precious genetic resources, it is imperative for all member economies to set up the ex-situ or in-situ storage of genetic resources.

APEC member economies acknowledge the value of collaboration in conservation and utilization of genetic resources. They also recognize the disparity in terms of information and capability related to genetic resources conservation and utilization among member economies. To eliminate this gap, the first APEC-ATC Workshop on Plant and Animal Genetic Resources with focus more on plant genetic resources was held in Chinese Taipei in November 1997 to identify the strengths and weakness among member economies and to formulate future collaborations. This Workshop, being a follow-up of the recommendations of the first APEC genetic resources workshop, will emphasize farm animal and aquatic genetic resources. However, a status report on the progress made in the cooperative area of Genetic Resources since the last workshop will be presented by Chinese Taipei, the Shepherd of this area. We are fortunate

to have three resource persons to share their expertise and experience of animal genetic resource conservation and utilization with us. I hope all of you will find this meeting useful and come up with some suggested work programs for ATCEG to considerate.

Finally, on behalf of all the participants in this room, we would like to express our sincere thanks to Director General Wang, Dr. Cheng, Head of Technical Service Department, Dr. Chang, Head of Animal Breeding Department and many others behind the scene for their excellent preparation and organization of this Workshop. I also hope that our quests from overseas will have a nice stay in Taiwan. Thank you.