HOM’s Draft Talking Points

HOM’s Draft Talking Points

Opening of the Quarantine Facility

27 January 2017

• Dr Chanhsamone Phongoudome, Deputy Director General, National Agricultural and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI)
• Dr Bounneuang Douangboupha, Director, Horticultural Research Center (HRC)
• Dr Simon Lawson, Associate Professor in Forest Health, University of the Sunshine Coast
• Good morning.

• This year, we celebrate the 65th anniversary of Lao-Australia relations.

• Australia is proud to be Laos’ longest unbroken diplomatic partnership at Ambassador level and we will be staging a range of events this year to mark this anniversary.

• At our annual Australia Day reception, we recognised the outstanding contribution to Australia-Lao relations by a select group of individuals and organisations from different fields, including in agriculture.

• Some of you may know Dr Phoudalay Latvilayvong, one of the awardees. She supported several ACIAR projects over the years, starting in the 1990s, and worked with a range of Australian scientists. Most importantly, she has independently expressed her opinions of what is best for the farmers and agricultural development in Savannakhet Province and consequently built a formidable legacy.

• Today, I am pleased to join you as we inaugurate and celebrate another good example of Australia-Lao cooperation.

• Australia, through the work supported by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), assists the Lao Government as it works towards sustainable forest management.  

• We commend the government’s commitment to increase forest cover to 70 percent by 2020.
• Australia too, recognises that forests have the potential to enhance livelihoods for Lao smallholder farmers and their communities.

• During my stay here in Laos, I have learned that Eucalypts[1]  are among the four most important forest plantation species in the Mekong Region.

• Sad to say, one of the biggest threats come in the form of invasive Australian insect pests which are now becoming a major nuisance in the region, including Laos, and thereby affecting plantation viability and smallholder incomes.

• To compensate for those pesky Australian insect pests, the Australian Government, through ACIAR, is pleased with the construction of this biological control facility here at NAFRI's Horticulture Research Centre in Vientiane.

• The facility enables Laos to import and release safely a new biological control agent to manage the eucalypt gall wasp, a key pest of eucalypts here.
• It also provides critical capacity and infrastructure to support similar activities in other agricultural and horticultural industries for Laos well into the future.

• Before I end, I would like to acknowledge the enormous effort put into the project by our government partners from NAFRI, especially the team of HRC, and the Australian scientists and researchers from the University of the Sunshine Coast and Queensland’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

• I also extend my appreciation to the members of the private sector who have closely coordinated with the project team to ensure the achievement of its objectives.

• Thank you and have a pleasant weekend ahead of you.