On 21 September 2022, Mr. Kimura Keitaro, Director, and Mr. Hosaka Masahiro, Deputy Director of Statistics Planning Division, Statistics Department from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) of Japan visited AFSIS Secretariat office.

On the occasion, AFSIS Secretariat led by Dr. Waraporn Saelee, AFSIS Manager, Ms. Sumanya Ngandee, Deputy AFSIS Manager, and Mr. Niimi Tomohiro, AFSIS Japanese Expert had an opportunity to introduce Mr. Kimura Keitaro and Mr. Hosaka Masahiro to Mr. Vinit Atisook, Deputy Secretary General, Office of Agricultural Economics (OAE) from the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MOAC), Thailand during their visit. Furthermore, they also had an opportunity to visit Mr. Choomjet Karnjanakesorn, General Manager of APTERR Secretariat as well.

The highlight of conversation during the visit were mainly on the appreciation of Japanese government towards AFSIS Secretariat for the recent success of the Regional Workshop on SAS-PSA project, and to Thai Government for the kind support to AFSIS project. They also reiterated to continually support AFSIS activities and the continued cooperation between Japanese and Thai governments for strengthening food security in ASEAN Region.

For the next technical support from MAFF of Japan is the “Project of Strengthening ASEAN Food Security Information System (AFSIS) Function for Emergency” or SAFER project which is planned to start in October 2022 – September 2025 with the objective to strengthen the AFSIS function on immediate sharing of food security information in the case of emergency.