Saudi Arabia

Lula said that his country could become a “strategic partner” for Saudi Arabia in its search for farm investment opportunities abroad to develop greater food security.

The United Nations says the issue of food security has become one of the world's fundamental challenges. In the Philippines, the government has started looking beyond its borders as it tries to boost domestic agriculture. Many small farmers, however, are not happy about that, as Marga Ortigas explains

One area the Saudis are looking at is investment in agriculture in Brazil as Riyadh seeks to build up food security by purchasing or leasing farmland in other countries.

Pakistan hopes to attract more than $10 billion of investment from oil-rich Arab Gulf countries this year to help develop the country's infrastructure, a senior government official said Saturday.

A visit last week by Saudi Arabian businessmen could result in $300 million in investments to develop 20,000 hectares of farm lands for commercial crops.

Pakistan's Ministry of Investment has decided to offer one million acres of farmland for long-term investment or sale to foreigners, including the Emirates Investment Group.

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) wants to create exclusive economic zones for agribusiness that would take into consideration the nuances of food production and an expanded set of incentives for locators.

Several Arab investors visited this city last week in a mission to look for potential agriculture business in Mindanao where they can pour their investments.

The fact that President Jakaya Kikwete accepted an invitation to Saudi Arabia recently to discuss the possibility of farmland allocation is important, as it means that Tanzania is attentive to the proposal.

The Philippine government has invited visiting investors from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to invest in the halal food industry, said Agriculture Secretary Arthur C. Yap. "They have the fund...we have to find a way to convince them to invest in the Philippines," he said.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said corporate executives representing the big agricultural businesses in Saudi Arabia have raised concerns about the Philippine agrarian reform and limiting foreign land ownership as they indicated interest in acquiring tracts of plantation land and poultry farms.

Over a million hectares of Philippines farmland will be made available to foreign and local investors in a bid to boost agriculture productivity.