India to host Asia biotech meet

Mumbai: India has announced the launch of an annual 'Asia Biotech' meet, aimed at bringing together scientists and biotechnology experts and to better focus on the needs of the people of the region.

Since most of Asia is largely an agricultural community, the focus should be on agricultural biotechnology, minister of science and technology Kapil Sibal said during the fourth Asean informal ministerial meeting on science and technology, held at Kuatan in Malaysia's Pahang state.

The `Asia Biotech' conference, modelled on the lines of the annual US 'Biotechnology Conference', will be held in rotation across Asean plus six nations, viz, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand. The first conference will be held at New Delhi in November 2007.

Sibal said the meet would welcome participation from other Asian and western nations, though the focus will be on Asia. The conference would also focus on health security, he added.

He also proposed the setting up of an Asian regulator on the lines of the US FDA.