FIA, the World Bank, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) made the move at the Vienna Food Safety Forum.
Bev Postma, executive director of FIA, which will make an initial contribution of US$150,000, said the agreement signals an important milestone to reduce hazards in food supply chains and enhance levels of trust between food companies and consumers.
“By signing this agreement for the GFSP in the presence of the World Bank, UNIDO, CFDA and global industry leaders, we are reaffirming FIA’s role as a trusted partner to businesses and governments in Asia as we seek to scale up our collaborative capacity-building efforts in risk management, risk assessment, and risk communications.”
The partnership, launched by the World Bank in 2012, seeks to improve capacity-building and training programmes for food safety practitioners in the public and private sectors.
Jiang Deyuan, president of CFDA Institute of executive development, said “CFDA…confirms its support to UNIDO and its partners in ensuring an effective and well-coordinated approach for implementing food safety capacity building projects in Asia and China.”
Cenk Gurol, chairman of GFSI, said there has been private-public cooperation between UNIDO and GFSI since 2009, specifically for the Global Market Program.
“GFSI and The Consumer Goods Forum are hoping to continue and enhance the collaboration with UNIDO, based on success of the UNIDO-GFSI-AEON flagship project in Malaysia, and we are pleased to partner with UNIDO and its regional partners to scale it upon the ASEAN region and in China through GFSI China Local Group.”