The 36th Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific (APRC) of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), hosted by Bangladesh  for the first time, will begin on Tuesday.

The 4-day conference will be held in a hybrid format, said Agriculture Minister Dr. Mohammad Abdur Razzaque at a press conference at the Secretariat on Monday.

He said the conference will continue till Friday.

According to the Agriculture Ministry, the main session of the conference will be held at the InterContinental Dhaka while the opening ceremony and country showcasing at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center.

Also read: Covid-19 pandemic swells number of hungry by more than 50 mn in Asia-Pacific: FAO-UNICEF Report

The meetings of senior government officials, agriculture secretaries and senior government officials will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday and minister-level meetings will be held on Thursday and Friday.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the minister-level meeting on Thursday.

The Agriculture Minister said, “It is a glorious moment for us. We want to showcase our capabilities to the world by organising this conference successfully, so that other international organizations become interested in hosting conferences in Bangladesh in future," he said.

The current state of food and agriculture in Asia and the Pacific, what need to be done to develop climate-tolerant agriculture and food system in the region, accelerating  the digitisation of agriculture value chain, prioritizing one-health approach, and economic cooperation and joint investment during Covid pandemic- will come up for discussion at the conference, said the minister at the briefing.

Apart from agriculture ministers and secretaries from 46 countries in Asia and the Pacific, top officials of government and non-government organizations will also take part in it.

Representatives of 43 member states, the Director General of the FAO, representatives of various UN bodies, development partners, NGOs and civil society have already registered to take part in it, said Dr Razzaque.

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The first FAO Asia-Pacific regional conference was held in Bangalore of India in 1953. Bangladesh joined the organization in 1973.