On 21 July 2023, Mr. Hideya Yamada Director General of the Statistics Department, and Mr. Masahiro Hosaka, Deputy Director of the Statistics Planning Division, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), Japan visited the Office of Agricultural Economics (OAE) to attend the bilateral meeting with Mr. Chantanon Wannakejohn, Secretary-General of the OAE, Ministry of Agricultural and Cooperative (MOAC) of Thailand, to discuss the effective and smooth implementation of AFSIS in the long term.

The representatives of OAE are Mr. Vinit Atisook, Deputy Secretary General of OAE, Ms. Anyada Penpon, Senior Statistician, Mr. Anon Boonyawattana, Statistician Practitioner Level, Ms. Natnaphat Subtaweepollert, Plan and Policy Analyst, and also AFSIS Secretariat attended the meeting.

The objectives of this significant meeting are to exchange candid opinions on the details of the AFSIS new framework and to form a common understanding of the general direction to be taken, and issues to be addressed.

Furthermore, the Meeting discussed the detail of Japan’s joint research project on developing an estimated method of rice production by using satellite imaging data to promote the interaction of agricultural statisticians among AFSIS member countries.

The meeting successfully ended with great collaboration from both sides to confirm their utmost effort in order to support the continuity and progression of the AFSIS outcomes in the future.