Southeast Asia wants to tap forests to develop biotechnology

Southeast Asia wants to tap forests to develop biotechnology
industry

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
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