On behalf of the Government of Lao People's Democratic Republic, I gratefully thank you for my attendance at this meeting as an observer. Lao PDR is a landlocked country and mostly the people catch fish from the rivers, mainly in the River Mekong, and in the reservoirs. On the other hand they practice fish farming in family ponds and paddy fields. There are also government-established fishponds as well as ponds run by agricultural cooperatives. Fish culture has great importance to Lao PDR; it provides high quality protein for the people, particularly the poor in the villages.
The Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia is directly involved in drawing up and implementing programmes in fish culture research, technology development, training and extension in the Asia-Pacific region. The regional programme of NACA will have a direct bearing on fish culture development in my country. NACA is already engaged in training Lao technicians in fish disease problem and shall help in setting up a suitable diagnostic laboratory in Lao PDR.
The work programme of NACA will be closely related to the fish culture project of FAO (LAO/82/014) in Lao PDR. This project aims to rehabilitate fish seed farms and increase fish seed production in five Lao provinces. Under this project, junior Lao fishery technicians have successfully bred Cirrhinus microlepis in the River Mekong by stripping the spawning female and male fish.
Thus it has been very useful to attend the NACA meeting as it has also given me an idea of the prospects of fish culture development in the region and for making suitable developmental programmes in the country.
Finally, I hope NACA in the future will help my government in setting up a fisheries research and development programme in the country.
