"There are a lot of things you cannot do if [your] planning framework is national, but you can do more if you transcend national boundaries." Urged Dr. Larry Chee-Yoong Wong, Senior Fellow at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia during the policy roundtable titled "Global Financial Crisis: Impacts, Challenges, and Responses toward Strengthening Agriculture and Food Security in Transition Southeast Asia."

The roundtable participants.

A total of 20 participants -- nine senior CLMV policymakers and/or policy analysts, six representatives from Korea FAO Association and other Korean organizations and five from SEARCA and UPLB -- gathered for this roundtable. Three experts served as resource persons.

Dr. Purushotttam K. Mudbhary, Chief of the Policy Assistance Branch at the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, FAO provided an overview of the negative impacts brought about by the world food and financial crisis in relation to the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals and poverty reduction efforts. He noted that the crisis affects non-agricultural sectors more than agriculture per se. As a way forward, he asserted the UN’s three-track approach which includes the right to food, safety nets for the long-term, and the importance of investing in agriculture.

Dr. Sisira Jayasuriya, Professor of Economics at Latrobe University, Australia explained the cause of the global financial crisis. As he put it, the crisis is essentially a result of loose financial regulation. The impact on developing countries is the reduction in exports thereby creating unemployment, lower labor remittances, lower rural incomes, and reduced rural well-being. He echoed the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) suggestion for Asia that it may need to rebalance growth away from exports and toward domestic demand in order to return to pre-crisis growth rates. This then may mean a reorientation of the economy as well as exploration of new trade and production patterns.

Lastly, Dr. Wong pointed out four key drivers in the renewed interest in agriculture. These include 1) agri-biotechnology coupled with ICT and nanotechnology “to revolutionize and push out agricultural production and profit frontiers,” 2) supply chains and trading networks expansion, 3) the rise of supermarkets, and 4) agriculture as the “main vehicle for reducing poverty and preserving the environment in the rural areas.”

He said that CLMV countries have somehow been shielded from the global crisis since their financial sectors are not strongly integrated with the international financial system. However, he noted that CLMV are still not free from the crisis’ indirect impacts.

On the other hand, CLMV representatives also took the floor and raised common impacts of the global financial crisis on their respective agricultural economies. These include reduced exports for traditional export crops and increasing rural unemployment, poverty, hunger, and diminishing rural well-being.

This discussion builds up on previous CLMV policy roundtables focused on 1) strengthening agricultural competitiveness; 2) building capacities in this respect; 3) shoring and sharing capacities to improve agriculture and its competitiveness; 4) food safety, emerging issues, and challenges in sanitary and phytosanitary measures; 5) biofuel development vis-à-vis food security; and 6) agribusiness challenges and opportunities vis-à-vis food security and poverty reduction.

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Report based on the Draft Highlights of the Seventh Policy Roundtable on Building Capacities for Agricultural Competitiveness of Transition Countries in Southeast Asia prepared by Dr. Maria Celeste H. Cadiz, Manager, Knowledge Management Department, SEARCA.