On behalf of the Directorate General for International Cooperation (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) of the Netherlands I would like to thank the NACA Coordinator for the kind invitation to attend the Third Meeting of the Provisional Governing Council in Asia. This meeting gives me the opportunity to renew old contacts and to interact with the different delegations of the NACA Network.
Despite the fact that the Dutch Bilateral Assistance is only slightly involved in aquaculture in Asia, our Government is highly interested in the performance of the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia.
The activities of the network in research, training and information exchange obviously show that collaboration among countries within a region is an effective way of supporting aquaculture development. The main aquaculture activities of the Dutch Assistance are directed towards Africa. Aquaculture development in Africa is still at an initial stage and aquaculture projects are implemented without coherence and information exchange.
Although in the last few years the coordination between aquaculturists has improved considerably, a lot of effort is still needed to create a solid base for an African aquaculture network.
Collaboration between NACA and the different donor agencies can be a good vehicle for information exchange towards aquaculture-developing countries and will certainly contribute to a better understanding of the process of aquaculture development.
