STATEMENT H.E.

DATO TAJUDDIN BIN ABDUL RAHMAN DEPUTY MINISTER, MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND AGRO-BASED INDUSTRY MALAYSIA His Excellency Mr. Theera Wongsamut Honorable Minister of Agriculture of Thailand, Mr. Hiroyuki Konuma, Assistant Director General of FAO, Honorable Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, 1. It is a great pleasure to express my gratitude and thanks on behalf of my delegation to His Excellency The Minister of Agriculture Thailand, the Government and the FAO Secretariat, for a very warm reception and generous hospitality extended since our arrival, to the beautiful city of Bangkok.

Excellencies, Gentlemen

Distinguished

Delegates,

Ladies

and

Malaysia Progress&Achievements 2. Malaysia has evolved from low-income country postindependence in 1957, currently as developing country leading towards high-income country by the year 2020. Significant changes were seen when the country's per
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capita income in 1970 was only USD376 but in the year 2012, our GDP was recorded at USD9,000 by the World Bank. We are trying very hard to achieve the targeted GDP of USD15,000 by the year 2020.

3.

In

Malaysia,

the

political

stability

and

economic

transformation program by the current leadership make all this possible. The Malaysia 5-year plan starting in 1966 has bearing its fruits and we proud to note achievements made by many Malaysian women at the national and international level. We have a ministry specifically to look after Women, Family and Community Development. In 1989, Malaysia adopted National Policy on Women with the objective to ensure equitable sharing of resources and development of opportunities between man and women. Today, the country has more than 30% of policy makers among women who are appointed to various important posts such as Ministers, Secretary General of Ministries, Vice-Chancellors, Defense Department, CEOs and even our Governor of the Central Bank.

4.

I must say among the success factor in our country is the contributions of women who plays the important part in our development. The total women workforce in Malaysia is 47.9% and they make up 23.4% in the agriculture
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sector. And as technology grows rapidly, so thus women's participation which has become more towards

mechanization and latest technology that optimized most of their time and effort. This allows them to spend more quality time for their family besides focusing on their career.

5.

For the past five decades, the Malaysian Government has been actively involved in providing formal and non-formal education and training for women. We believe that involvement of Knowledge-Worker in any sector will bring more innovations and expedite any development. Thus, the outcome has been very encouraging. In the Tertiary Education, female students made up 60% from the total of 1.2 million students. The Ministry of Agriculture has also introduced a number of programs targeting young and educated generations, particularly women involved in agriculture through an initiative called the Agropreneur Program and MyAgrosis which the membership now reaches 10,000 people covering the University students and the young. We believe that agriculture should be participate and lead by educated people who can bring innovations and paradigm- change towards this sector.

6.

In Malaysia, programmes have been and will continue to be implemented by the Government to ensure womens participation in the workforce to ensure adequate

renumeration and thus food and nutrition security. These include programmes for production of important

agriculture produce such as rice, fruits, vegetables, coconuts, cash crops and others. For your information, Malaysia has no issue in terms of undernourishment and access of quality food by its people.

Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen Financing 7. Malaysia has few agencies to assist women in agriculture and business. One of the most successful agencies in helping women entrepreneurs and farmers is "Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia" through micro-financing scheme that is available to those entrepreneurs. Over USD2 billion has been disbursed to over 270,000 borrowers since its inception 30 years ago with 99.49% repayment. I must say with these figures, women are indeed very consistent and highly responsible businessperson.

8.

In addition, Malaysia also has another two agencies that provides micro-credits to
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entrepreneurs

known

as

"TEKUN" and a specific agricultural bank known as AGROBANK. Our TEKUN recently has won The

Sustainable Finance Award 2013 in Global Sustainable Finance Conference in Germany. Since its

establishment in 1994, it has disbursed a sum of USD 0.9billion to 260,000 micro and small entrepreneurs, which 55% of them were women. In addition, 1AZAM program was introduced by the government in helping the poor and women to start a small business with an allocation of USD40 million per year through the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development.

10. All these programmes are implemented based on a total value chain concept. Support system for food security is provided in terms of technical advice for producers, small loans for inputs, research for higher yielding crops, pest surveillance for granary areas to reduce crop losses due to pest and disease attacks, and facilitation for marketing channels for small farmers through few government agencies.

11. In the agricultural manufacturing sector, programmes for enterprises include development of entrepreneurs, loan of small and commercial sized machines for up-scaling, branding and promotion for products, quality control of
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products, product development and networking. In this sector, women play an important role not only as workers but also as owners of enterprises.

12. For the record, 65% out of 15,000 entrepreneurs in Agro-Based Enterprises are women-owned. These agricultural-based enterprises recorded total annual sales of USD 0.6 billion in 2012.

Excellencies, Gentlemen

Distinguished

Delegates,

Ladies

and

10. Women play multiple roles, not only as workers but also as owners, producers, marketers, mothers and wives. Their involvement in the agriculture and agro-based sector has contributed to the familys income and subsequently to the food and nutrition security of the family. It should be seen as equally important as the men participation in Agriculture sector. On a broader level, their contribution to the sector has helped in sustaining food security. 11. Before I conclude, Malaysia is decisive in its stand and reaffirms our commitment that we will continue to increase our investment in agriculture and rural infrastructure, and at the same time protect our natural resources and
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provide safety nets for those vulnerable people who really need them. Thank you.