UAE minister highlights importance of joint GCC action to boost food security

Dubai: Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, today reiterated the wise UAE leadership’s keenness to drive joint efforts aimed at building sustainable food and agricultural systems in countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Her comments came during her participation in the 32nd Meeting of the GCC Agricultural Cooperation Committee.

The minister commended the pioneering work of the committee and expressed her hope that its decisions will usher in a new phase of collaboration in GCC member states to achieve the objectives of their governments and peoples. She stressed the importance of continuing to forge new partnerships and increasing the scale of existing joint projects among GCC countries to enhance food security that has become a priority at the local, regional and global levels. She also thanked the Secretariat General of the GCC for its dedication to pursuing this objective.

Among the main points on the agenda were the Unified Legislative Framework for the Management of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, the Agricultural Quarantine Act, the Development of Sustainable Date Palm Production Systems in the GCC Countries project, the GCC Early Warning Center for Transboundary Animal Diseases, a proposal to improve the competitiveness of agricultural products from the GCC region, and the regulation and control of export and import of live aquatic animals and plants and their products.

Participants also discussed nontariff barriers and the GCC’s cooperation with Jordan and Morocco.