Trade, biotechnology and sustainable development: a report on the Southeast Asia Workshop for policymakers

UNU Monitor is a quarterly review of the United Nations University's (UNU) current research activities, publications and forthcoming projects in the area of environment and sustainable development. This issue features an article by W. Bradnee Chambers, Jessica F. Green and Alphonse Kambu, documenting the discussions at a capacity building workshop held in Hanoi, Vietnam in January 2004, which explored integrated approaches to biotechnology regimes and sustainable development. The meeting, held in Hanoi by the Vietnamese government, was attended by officials from nine ASEAN governments, resource persons from UNU-IAS, the ASEAN Secretariat and the Japan Bioindustry Association. The article highlights the main goals of the meeting: to understand the interrelationships between different trade and environmental agreements and their impacts on managing biotechnology. It was agreed that promoting synergies between these three regimes at the level of implementation remains a key challenge. The final recommendations, detailed in the report, focus on potential activities and modalities to promote more integrated response to trade, biotechnology and sustainable development challenges. This workshop was held as part of the activities of the Sustainable Development Governance Programme at UNU-IAS. More information about the Institute, and the Sustainable Development Governance programme is available at http://www.ias.unu.edu/research/sdgovernance.cfm . For further information, please contact W. Bradnee Chambers ( chambers@ias.unu.edu ).