The Regional Director (RD) of the Asian Regional Center – Thailand had the unique experience of joining discussions with three different Good Agriculture Practice (GAP) programs in Thailand. On 4 September 2007, the RD was invited to join the ASEAN Australian Development Cooperation Program (AADCP)-Regional Partnership Scheme (RPS) to share his views about training in ASEAN GAP. This was approved by ASEAN and ARC has been asked to organize a 5 day training workshop in February 2008. This was discussed at the AADCP RPS–ASEAN GAP project Inception meeting. While the meeting agreed that it was important to initiate a Training of Trainers, the AADCP-RPS ASEAN GAP project management decided that they will not participate in the 26th RTC and preferred to organize a separate workshop instead. ASEAN GAP in Thailand is under the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives.

On 6 September 2007, the RD joined the 8th EUREPGAP Conference 2007 at a prestigious hotel in Bangkok. EUREPGAP is promoted in Thailand by GTZ Thailand as GTZ EUREPGAP Option 2 Project. One of the conference sponsors is ThaiGAP, which seeks to create standards for agricultural production in Thailand compatible with world standards and to develop the capacity of small growers to compete in international markets. ThaiGAP is under the responsibility of the Thai Chamber of Commerce.

All three GAPs share the same vision of enhancing food quality and food safety and ARC looks towards
supporting these activities in Thailand.

- Source: AVRDC Newsletter of 7 September 2007