H.E. Al Mansouri receives award in recognition of MoE efforts to keep food prices low
The UAE Ministry of Economy (MoE) has announced that it has yesterday (Tuesday, April 08, 2008) met with representatives from the World Food Program (UNWFP), the United Nations frontline agency in the fight against global hunger, where the two parties discussed the regional and global impact of rising food prices.
John M. Powell, Deputy Executive Director of the External Affairs and Resource Development Department of the UNWFP, praised the UAE's efforts to keep food prices low, and presented H.E. Al Mansouri with a prize in recognition of MoE efforts in this regard.
Under the leadership of H.E. Al Mansouri, the Ministry has been aggressively implementing several strategies to manage prices of basic commodities; last month the MoE signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Union Cooperative Society to retain the 2007 prices of 16 basic food items. The Ministry also recently signed an MoU with Lulu Hypermarket Group to fix the prices of 32 basic commodities.
Commenting on the productive discussion, H.E. Al Mansouri said: "The MoE can benefit from the UNWFP's experience, so we offer our full cooperation to achieve what is good for the UAE and for other nations involved in the program; as long as there is balanced cooperation from all concerned parties. We will do our best to solve the issue of the rising cost of food at the soonest; which is an issue that is affecting many global markets and thus needs the full cooperation of worldwide governments and organizations."
The meeting comes only weeks after the WFP Executive Director, Josette Sheeran, sent a letter to 20 heads of state, calling on them to make an emergency allocation to the organisation's newly created special account, to offset the rising costs associated with procuring and delivering food. The WFP aims to feed 73 million people in 78 countries throughout 2008, at a cost of around USD 3.4 billion.
Rising food prices worldwide are predominantly attributed to the rise in oil and energy prices; the economic boom that is increasing food demand; weather-related events and bad harvests; and competition between food and fuel.
John Powell concluded: "The Ministry has been very cooperative, and we commend the great efforts they are making to keep the prices of basic food commodities as low as possible. Policy makers are being confronted by increasingly complex challenges, as food reserves are at their lowest for 30 years, which is forcing the need for urgent evaluation of current processes and systems. We thank the MoE for their support of programs launched by the UNWFP, the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN, and others."
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© Press Release 2008
