Singapore eyes food security deals with Thailand
Top official meets Thai counterpart to discuss sustainable food industry and seeks knowledge exchange in farming and developing a carbon-credit system
A senior Singapore official met the Agriculture Ministry’s permanent secretary on Tuesday and expressed interest in cooperating with Thailand to address food security issues.
Stanley Loh, permanent secretary of Singapore’s Sustainability and Environment Ministry, met Agriculture permanent secretary Prayoon Insakul.
After the meeting, Prayoon said both sides exchanged policies on sustainable food development and agreed in principle to cooperate on food security.
He said Loh shared information on the Singapore Green Plan 2030, which is part of the island state’s national agenda to develop green areas for sustainability.
In exchange, Prayoon said, he shared Thailand’s BCG (bio, circular and green) model policy, which is aimed at helping the agricultural sector to achieve high efficiency, high standards and high income.
He said Loh also showed interest in signing memoranda of understanding with the Thai Agriculture Ministry on several food security and sustainability projects.
For instance, he said, Loh wanted to sign an MOU that allows Singapore officials to visit Thailand to study seabass farming and an MOU on exchanging knowledge on developing a carbon credit system.
Prayoon said Thailand had many agricultural products that could support Singapore’s food security policy.
The two countries have witnessed bilateral trade valued at about 598 billion baht per year from 2021 to 2023, with Thailand importing some 268 billion baht worth of goods and exporting 329 billion baht worth to Singapore.
