Jakarta, 26 February – ASEAN Secretary General Rodolfo C. Severino Jr. together with Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture’s Secretary General Dr. Ir. Memed Gunawan MSc and Jambi Governor Zulkifli Nurdin  launched the ASEAN eFarmers and Agritani e-hub.

The ASEAN eFarmers has been initiated by the ASEAN Secretariat and Agritani e-hub.  Agritani will provide e-marketplace solutions that will accommodate transactions from large companies and support small and medium size agricultural enterprises.

The ASEAN Secretary General Rodolfo C. Severino underscored the importance of the  launch of the new internet based e-hub and its major aim to provide all the critical trade services in agribusiness including financial services, transportation, shipping and warehousing.  “This initiative aims to benefit more than 200 million farmers and their dependents in the region” Severino said.

In a speech read by the Secretary General Dr. Ir. Memed Gunawan for the Indonesian Minister of Agriculture, the Minister highlighted the ASEAN eFarmers project would allow the farmers and producers to have direct access to market information and would provide an easy and comprehensive set of services to allow farmers and producers to communicate and engage in trade and transactions online.

The province of Jambi is the first beneficiary of the pilot launch of the eFarmers initiative. During his remarks, Jambi Governor Drs. H. Zulkifli Nurdin emphasized the importance of e-commerce, especially to the agricultural sector. He foresees the province becoming the gateway of agribusiness trade in the future. In Jambi province alone, hundreds of farmer’s cooperatives have been identified. The eFarmers National Task Force in Indonesia now comprises of government and semi government organizations including LIPI(Indonesian Institute of Science), Bank Rakyat Indonesia, Sucofindo(National Logistics Board), Ministry of Agriculture, Bulog(Food Reserve Board of Indonesia) and the Department of Agricultural Cooperatives of Indonesia.

The ASEAN eFarmers project is one of the flagship projects initiated by the ASEAN Secretariat as a result of the ASEAN Framework Agreement adopted in November 2000 by the ASEAN heads of government at their meeting in Singapore.  The agreement aims to improve the digital readiness of the region through the application of information and communication technology.

The new e-hub has the support of both the private and public sector. Among the participants from the private sector include companies like Accenture, the global leader in information technology and Microsoft which is providing the backbone infrastructure of the e-hub.