Readout of the meeting between the FAO Director-General and Dato’ Haslina Abdul Hamid, Secretary General for Agriculture and Food Industries of Malaysia

29 July 2021, Rome – In their meeting today Dato’ Haslina Abdul Hamid, Secretary General for Agriculture and Food Industries of Malaysia congratulated the FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu on the successful organization of the Pre-Summit. She also highly praised the Director-General for his remarkable leadership since taking office in 2019.

The Secretary General informed that the Ministry has set up a Food Safety Committee and Task Force to ensure citizens are well served by modern, safe and sustainable food and agricultural practices under the Malaysia Plan for 2021-2025. She also requested FAO’s support in this regard.

Regarding the production of palm oil, the Director-General was informed that the focus is on its sustainability.

The Secretary General thanked FAO for the Technical Cooperation Programme and expressed the willingness to have further programmes in the future.

The Director-General thanked Malaysia for supporting and participating in the UN Food Systems Pre-Summit and informed that more than 10,000 people attended the Pre-Summit, both via physical and virtual modalities, and highlighted that this was the first such hybrid meeting of this size since the outbreak of the pandemic.

The Director-General encouraged Malaysia to transform its agri-food systems through holistic design, developing value-added agriculture and promoting rural development. In this regard, the Director-General referred to the green transformation of palm oil production to ensure its sustainability.