ASEAN and its three partners have agreed to set up a rice reserve fund of 4 million USD after the current rice reserve pilot project expires at the end of February, according to the National News Bureau of Thailand (NNT).

Thai Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Teera Wongsamut on Jan. 26 made the announcement on the decision which resulted from a meeting among representatives and related agencies of ASEAN countries and their three regional partners – Japan, China and the Republic of Korea (or ASEAN+3).

They agreed to create a permanent rice reserve fund to support ASEAN+3 countries to replace the pilot project which will soon expire.

Minister Teera clarified that the fund would take five years to be set up, at a projected amount of 4 million USD.

China and Japan were required to pool 1 million USD each, while ASEAN countries together needed to add up 1 million USD in total. All member countries were also required to provide 300,000 USD for administrative costs each year during the fund’s formation period.

The fund will come in handy for rice reserves in emergencies to support member countries’ food security. It would also be a centre for food information management, which will help the countries to closely control rice distribution among the ASEAN+3, in the case of adverse impacts from the rice production of outside countries.

ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

 (CPV/VNA)