KUALA LUMPUR: The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry is drafting a bill aimed at safeguarding biological resources and traditional knowledge, and ensuring benefit-sharing.
Its minister, Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, said the Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) bill regulates the use of biological resources, addresses issues of biopiracy and ensures that resulting benefits are shared equitably.
Wan Junaidi said it is a realisation of the national agenda to generate a wealth of biological resources as outlined in the New Economic Model 2010. He was speaking at a press conference after launching the National Conference on Access to Biological Resources and Benefit Sharing today.
Wan Junaidi added that the bill was in line with the country's obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity, which is an international agreement on the restoration of various biological resources. Malaysia has been a signatory member to the convention since 1992.
The conference was attended by 120 representatives from federal and state governments, non-governmental organisations, academic institutions, private sector institutions and individual researchers.