Ensuring Safety in Biotechnology Development - APEC High Level Policy Dialogue on Agricultural Biotechnology in March

Senior policy officials and business representatives will seek ways to ensure people in the Asia-Pacific receive maximum benefit from biotechnology developments while protecting the environment when they meet in Seoul, Korea, on March 1-3.

The "4th annual High Level Policy Dialogue on Agricultural Biotechnology" will provide a final opportunity for over 100 representatives from APEC Member Economies to meet before the scheduled "Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol" in May.

This year's APEC Dialogue on Agricultural Biotechnology will provide an ideal opportunity for economies to identify policy issues that should be considered when decisions are being made on how to implement the Protocol. Economies present in the Policy Dialogue include both Parties and non-Parties to the Protocol, as well as exporters and importers.

This year's Policy Dialogue will also address Intellectual Property Rights and Technology Transfer, and Bioinformatics. The Policy Dialogue will also review public policy development activities and consider future work in the context of the 2004-2006 Policy Dialogue Work Plan. This will include additional activities to support the development of attractive investment environments for biotechnology.

In conjunction with the Policy Dialogue, private sector representatives will also present a day of activities focusing on the Consumer Acceptance of Biotechnology.

Since the first Policy Dialogue meeting in Mexico City in 2002, the APEC Policy Dialogue has become the premier meeting in the Asia-Pacific region for high level agricultural biotechnology policy makers. Through the Policy Dialogue, APEC seeks to build the capacity of economies to maximize the benefits of this promising technology.

This High Level Dialogue provides a forum for policy-makers to exchange and discuss multidisciplinary policy views, trade implications, implementation experiences, effective communication strategies, and benefits such as increased productivity, improved rural development and other benefits of agricultural biotechnology.