FAO Director-General visits Oman ahead of Antimicrobial Resistance Conference
Muscat– FAO Director-General QU Dongyu today met Oman’s Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, and Water Resources, Saud bin Hamoud bin Ahmed Al-Habsi, ahead of the Third Global High-Level Ministerial Conference on Antimicrobial Resistance in Muscat.
The Director-General thanked the Government of Oman for hosting the conference and expressed FAO’s full support for the gathering, which is designed to accelerate tackling AMR at the national, regional, and global levels and to enhance international cooperation, as well as to support agrifood systems transformation.
Qu expressed his appreciation to Oman for its support to FAO – the Minister was the Chairperson of the 35th FAO Regional Conference for the Near East held virtually from Muscat in September 2020 – and outlined some of the key initiatives and reforms undertaken by FAO since he assumed office. The Director-General also commended Oman for its achievements in terms of social and economic developments over the past 10 years.
The Minister thanked the Director-General for the official visit and expressed the government’s desire to expand the partnership with FAO by strengthening programming and technical support areas through the FAO Representation in Oman. He also underlined the successful finalization of the South-South Cooperation (SCC) partnership, to be signed on the sidelines of the Ministerial Conference on Antimicrobial Resistance.
The Director-General reiterated his full support for an expanded cooperation with Oman, such as to increase the productivity of the fisheries and aquaculture sector. Oman’s leading role in upscaling digital technologies in the region was also identified as a key focus.
The Director-General also visited the Central Animal Health Lab, accompanied by Dr. Ahmed Bin Nasser Al Bakri, Undersecretary of Agriculture, where he viewed the lab’s capacities particularly in the livestock sector, and discussed plans for further expansion.
The Director-General invited the Undersecretary to propose the lab to be a FAO Reference Centre, which would be the first in the region and benefit countries to address Transboundary Animal Diseases (TADs).