Southeast Asia wants to tap forests

Southeast Asia wants to tap forests

Southeast Asia's forests should be scoured for medicines and other resources to help develop the region's biotechnology industry, the chief of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) said on Monday.

"Locked in our rain forests and subtropical forests is a huge and diverse range of ecosystems which no one else in the world can match collectively," said ASEAN secretary general Ong Keng Yong.

"ASEAN is keen to look for foreign investors to team up with local parties to advance various aspects of biotechnology," Ong said at a business forum in Singapore.

The proposal might worry environmental groups, who are already warning that Southeast Asia's fragile forests, especially in Indonesia, may not last another decade if their exploitation continues.

Ong said the region's ecosystem presents ASEAN member nations with opportunities to develop possible vaccines and cures for communicable diseases, or to find "functional foods," he said, without elaborating.

He said forests were one area that ASEAN is studying in a bid to integrate its member nations' economies and improve living standards in a region of 500 million people, many living in poverty.

"Economic integration in ASEAN is not an option but a survival imperative ... ASEAN is out there, pushing all the buttons to stay competitive," said Ong, a Singaporean.

ASEAN members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. -- AFP