Welcoming Address
of Mr. Vanich Varikul, Director-General, Department of Fisheries
It is always a pleasure to see both familiar and new faces at a gathering devoted to an important topic as seafarming. Allow me to extend to all of you a very warm welcome to Thailand, and to this maiden meeting of national coordinators of the regional seafarming development project, a timely project which reflects the trend of fisheries research and development in the Asia-Pacific Region.
I am happy to note that the implementation of the project, like NACA, is also based on the principle of Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries, or TCDC, especially for technology development and transfer, and information exchange. Allow me to take this apportunity to further reiterate and reaffirm Thailand's support and commitment to the TCDC practices in the region.
Some of you may know that the FAO/UNDP regional project for the establishment of a Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia, commonly known as NACA, will soon be institutionalized and re-constituted into an inter-governmental body, charged with the responsibility or aquaculture development through TCDC. As seafarming is aquaculture in marine waters and shallow seas, it is envisaged that the seafarming network of centres will be one of several sub-networks to be established under the umbrella of the institutionalized NACA. In this connection, I wish to invite participating countries of the seafarming project, which are presently not NACA members, to join NACA and make it “ a self-sustaining, wholly Asian activity” for the benefit of the Asian peoples. I believe that Mr. Chen Foo Yan, the NACA Coordinator and concurrently the Chief Technical Adviser of the seafarming project, will give you further details during the course of your meeting.
Let me now turn to the specific task at hand which has brought us together.
As we have informed Mr. Chen, Thailand fully supports the UNDP/FAO Regional Seafarming Development and Demonstration Project, which we believe will further strengthen the early initiative and effort each of our own country has embarked on in the areas of seafarming. In your deliberations and discussions on the scope, direction and thrusts of the project and the formulation of its work plan and programme, you may wish to assess the activities in the light of the resources available, as proposed in the project document.
Thailand has a special interest in the outcome of this National Co-ordinators' meeting as seafarming is one of our active programme area in supplementing the supply of fish for the people. It is partly for this reason that we are happy to host this Meeting in Bangkok as we would like to share with you as learn from you the many facets of seafrming technology, economics and institutional support so necessary to ensure its success.
Along this line, we have organized a study tour of seafarming activities in Phuket and Phang-Nga. I would urge you to come along and enjoy yourselves after long hours of mental work.
Let me close my welcome address by declaring the meeting open, and wishing all of you a productive and fruitful meeting and a happy stay in Thailand.
Thank you.
