Bernama.com (Malaysian National News Agency), 19 April, 2007

Biotech Can Address Global Challenges If Used Wisely

KUALA LUMPUR, April 19 (Bernama) -- Modern biotechnology has the potential, if used ethically and wisely, to address some of the challenges faced by the world in the fields of agriculture, environment, food and medicine.

Natural Resources and Environment Ministry undersecretary for conservation and environment management division Dr Lian Kok Fei said the world community adopted the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety in 2000 to ensure such technology would not adversely affect biodiversity and human health.

"This is a clear sign of the confidence the global community places in the protocol as well as the recognition of the need for international cooperation in ensuring the safe transfer, handling and use of modern biotechnology," he said at the opening of the International Symposium in Biosafety and Biosafety Education here.

Since its adoption, the number of parties to the protocol continues to grow and currently stands at 140.

He said it was a fast-growing intensive technology which had been identified as a new engine of growth for Malaysia, a country recognised as one of the world's mega biodiversity centres.

At the same time, the government was in the midst of enacting a law on biosafety to ensure that safety was not being compromised in allowing for such technological development, he said.

Meanwhile, speaking at the symposium, Nobel Prize winner Professor Dr Werner Arber said that international scientists must explain to the political world and members of the public that genetic research was now being carried out in a more responsible and safe manner.

Dr Arber, who is from the University of Basel's molecular microbiology division in Switzerland, won the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology for the discovery of restriction enzymes and their application to problems of molecular genetics.

-- BERNAMA