7. Progress report on APPPC information exchange

The progress report on APPPC information exchange was presented by the Executive Secretary.

7.1 Information Exchange among APPPC members

To strengthen APPPC's role for information exchange among its member countries, the Secretariat has initiated a systematic analysis of the 2005 country reports with the aim of improving its information exchange services, and exploring multiple information channels. It was felt that a common format for key plant protection information ("Plant Protection Profiles") would be more suitable to inform other member countries.

In order to develop a standard format for essential information describing the organization and state of development of the different plant protection functions in the APPPC member countries, the "Workshop on pilot consultation on development of profiles for the exchange of plant protection information among APPPC members for phytosanitary measures" was held at Bangkok, Thailand, from 12-13 December 2006.

Following the regional consultations, the draft Plant Protection Profiles were revised and sent to the participating countries for review and completion. The revised drafts were also sent to a number of
non-participating countries which submitted a 2005 country report. The updated Plant Protection Profiles that were returned to the APPPC Secretariat were edited for consistency.

It is expected that the new format would be used for the preparation of the 2007 APPPC country reports, whereby the delegates would only highlight important developments while referring to details in the Plant Protection Profiles. In addition, the Profiles should also facilitate the preparation of other international and national reports.

The "3^rd information exchange IPP training workshop for the Asia region" was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia during 14 to 17 November 2006 with support of IPPC Secretariat and the Crop Protection and Plant Quarantine Division, Department of Agriculture under the Ministry of Agriculture, Malaysia for enhancing the phytosanitary information exchange capacity building for the Asian region.

As part of its efforts to promote information exchange among member countries, the Commission has produced several publications, hard copies of which are already distributed to the member countries and are downloadable from the website (http://www.fao.org/world/regional/rap/) and IPP. These publications include:

• Proceedings of Asia Regional Workshop on the Implementation, Monitoring and Observance of the International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides (RAP Publication – 2005/29)
• Regional Standards for Phytosanitary Measures (RSPM No. 3): Requirements for the Establishment and Maintenance of Pest Free Areas for Tephritid Fruit Flies (RAP Publication – 2005/26)
• Regional Standards for Phytosanitary Measures (RSPM No. 4): Guidelines for the Confirmation of Non-host Status of Fruit and Vegetables to Tephritid Fruit Flies (RAP Publication – 2005/27)
• Report of the Twenty-fourth session of the Asia and Pacific Plant Protection Commission (APPPC) (RAP Publication – 2005/25).
• Plant Protection Profiles from Asia-Pacific countries (RAP Publication – 2007/08)

In addition, through the International Phytosanitary Portal, the Commission has made available information about RSPMs and other relevant reports.