On 28 May 2021, the 9th Meeting of ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve (APTERR) Council was held as a virtual conference through Cisco Webex Video Conference. The Meeting was organized by the APTERR Secretariat and hosted by the National Food Authority (NFA), Department of Agriculture, the Philippines.

The meeting was attended by the representatives from the APTERR members and observers from other organizations such as ASEAN Food Security Information System (AFSIS) Secretariat, ASEAN Food Security Reserve Board (AFSRB), and ASEAN Secretariat (ASEC).

There were 4 representatives from the AFSIS Secretariat that attended this meeting which led by Dr. Waraporn Saelee, AFSIS Manager and Mr. Tomohiro NIIMI, the Japanese expert.

The objectives of the meeting are to update the Meeting on the progress of the instrument of ratification deposited by the APTERR Parties, to present the Meeting with the latest update on the status of the Endowment Fund and the contribution for the Operational Cost of the APTERR Fund, to discuss on the work plan and budget plan for the fiscal year 2020 and the work plan and annual operational budget proposal for the fiscal year 2021.

The Meeting has also approved the proposed details of APTERR Tier 3 programmes, as well as an update on the implementation of APTERR programmes.

Moreover, during the meeting, the manager of AFSIS Secretariat expressed the commitment to continuing support APTERR Secretariat, and mentioned that the Early Warning Information Reports, and Rice Growing Outlook Reports, in collaboration with RESTEC, will continue to launch in order to be beneficial for the APTERR Secretariat and other organizations.

The meeting was held successfully and ended fruitfully at 12:53 pm, the Philippines time.