Country Ministers Describe Biotech Support
George Miller
When it comes to attracting biotechnology investment, government ministers describe their countries as they would their children-they beam when describing the strengths, but are forthright-if softer spoken, about the challenges.
Such it was at the 2007 Ministerial Seminar, during which high-ranking government officials from South Africa, Thailand, New Zealand and Argentina described the opportunities available to companies that may want to locate or invest.
The Dep. Honorable Derek Hanekom, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology for South Africa, cited the country's national biotechnology strategy that was formed in 2001 and its biodiversity act of 2004 as proof of the government's commitment to biotech. He also noted the country's stable political environment and its current 1.2 million hectares of genetically modified crops.
Challenges in South Africa include trade and IP issues, he said, but he cited skills and human capital development as "probably the greatest challenge," and a legacy of Apartheid.
Hanekom mentioned the biodiversity in South Africa as well as the country's beauty as additional incentives.
For New Zealand, the Honorable Trevor Mallard, Minister of Economic Development, also boasted about biodiversity and beauty. "New Zealand is a tiny country in the Pacific, and its isolation is helpful in biology," he said, in that some diseases have been kept at bay.
"We were biotech pioneers," he said, and the government currently allocates 25% of its R&D expenditure to biotech. Some 190 biotech patents were granted in New Zealand between 2004 and 2005, he said.
In Thailand, the biotech commitment is focused more on food, a traditional economic staple of the country, said The Honorable Dr. Yongyuth Yuthavong, Minister of Science. He cited the country's location "right in the middle of Southeast Asia as a selling point.
Current goals of the Thai government are fostering the emergence of the new biotech business and promoting Thailand as the kitchen of the world.
He also described an 80-acre biotech center being constructed in Thailand's Science Park; some 50 companies are situated there now, and he hopes to have 200 by 2009.
Half-way around the world in Argentina, 54% of export income originates in the agri-food sector, according to the Honorable Fernando Nebbia, Undersecretary of Agricultural, Livestock and Food Policy, Acting Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food.
The country is therefore deeply involved in agbiotech adoption, a strategic option for the country. Nebbia boasted about the Argentina's 1991 creation of a national biosafety commission and its first commercial release of a genetically modified crop in 1999.
Some 18 million hectares of genetically modified crops were planted in 2007. Argentineans have been involved in genetically modified crop field trials over the last decade, primarily for maize and soybeans, to develop insect resistance and herbicide tolerance.
