Final Report and Recommendations

1. The seminar on sub-networking on information was held in Cairo from 11 to 13 December 1991.

   The meeting was attended by participants from 13 member countries, one associated country, in addition to 3 Sub-regional Coordinators, the Project Coordinator and FAO,

   The meeting which took place in Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture was formally opened by A. SHINAWY, the Agriculture Coordinator of Egypt, who consecutively invited Mr. A. THABET on behalf of FAO Office in Cairo, Mr. ADAM, Vice-Chairman of General Authority for Fish Resources Development and Dr. Saad NASSER, the Consultant of Ministry of Agriculture and Supervisor for the Agriculture Foreign Relations.

   The Project Coordinator, Mr. H. AKROUT Thanked the Egyptian Government for hosting the meeting and highlighted the importance of the seminar hoping that it achieves its objectives.

2. The meeting then elected the following as:

   -   Chairman Mr. Aly KATHER

   -   Vice-Chairman MS. Maria Joao ROBALO

   -   Reporters. Dr. Adam BENOVIC;

   • Mr. Issam KROUMA
   • assisted by Mr. Othmen BEJI.

   The proposed agenda was adopted as presented.

3. The Representatives of each country then gave a resume of the state of the art in each respective country (Annex 3).

4. The three Sub-regional Coordinators then discussed the situation in each region putting emphasis on existing similarities and deficiencies in their respective regions, National Coordinator of Yugoslavia, Turkey, Albania and Bulgaria pointed out some technical difficulties encountered as a result of the political situation in their countries. In the absence of the Sub regional Coordinator of Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Portugal, the National Coordinator of Tunisia gave a picture of the relevant Sub-region.

5. Mr. FERLIN, the representative of France presented the present data collection system in his country. There is no central system covering all the various data, but specialized systems or networks for production data, marketing data, water quality data, pathology data and scientific data exist. Production and marketing data are mostly collected by producers or trader's associations.

6. The afternoon session was opened by a lecture by Mr. R.S. COPPOLA (FAO/FIDX) who presented and explained a conceptual design of an information system for the promotion of aquaculture in the Mediterranean region. He presented the data information flow concept, duties and responsibilities at national, regional and Project Head Quarter levels. The lecture and the document was discussed the following afternoon, reviewed and modified accordingly (Annex 2).

7. Mr. I. FEIDI (FAO regional Office) then presented the INFOSAMAK system, followed by Ms. H. JOSUPEIT (FAO) who presented the GLOBEFISH system.

8. Mr. B. TRITAR, National Coordinator of Tunisia explained all that has been accomplished in Tunisia in the organization of data banks related to aquaculture.

9. Mrs. D. STEPHANOU, the Representative of Cyprus, assisted by Mr. S. kANIOS on the computer, presented the Cypriot experience in the organization of an aquaculture data bank in the Fisheries Department of the Ministry of Agriculture.

10. Mr. A. SALEM of the General Authority for Fish Resources Development presented the Egyptian effort in this field. He mentioned their successful efforts in the arabization of certain applications.

11. The above mentioned presentations were given in order to contribute to the establishment of a permanent and self-sustaining information and a documentation system for aquaculture in the region.

12. During the discussions that followed, participants expressed their views and comments on needs and capabilities for the successful implementation of the proposed system in the region referred to as of now as System of Information for the Promotion of Aquaculture in the Mediterranean (SIPAM).

13. In the ensuring discussions and in light of the presentations, the National Coordinator of Lebanon, Mr. H. KOUYOUMJIAN highlighted the importance of establishing minima capabilities in this field in a few countries, in order to catalyse their national activities to become integral participants in SIPAM.

14. The proposal of National Coordinator of Lebanon to form an Ad-hoc group for concrete formulation of the activity was adopted, and it was formed by the following: Messers p. FERLIN, H. KOUYOUMJIAN, O. BEJI, A. SHINAWY, S.R. COPPOLA and Mrs. S. ZLATANOVA.

15. The recommendations and the conclusions of the Ad-hoc group were adopted by the seminar and is given in Annex 1.

16. As regards the proposals in the above mentioned Annex, the following additional recommendation was adopted:

    -   Egypt, Turkey , Cyprus, Portugal and Tunisia will constitute the group in phase 1, that will start system, and that other countries can join this group at appropriate times.

17. Expected budget

    According to the proposed conceptual design reviewed and approved at seminar, the MEDRAP II Project through its Head Quarters in Tunis and the countries within the MEDRAP area, will initiate a programme of work for the establishment of SIPAM. For its implementation, the following resources are foreseen for the first phase (one year basis).

The above estimates refer to a system using one working language only (English). Should the system be "translated" into other languages (i.e, French and / or Arabic), this component should then be evaluated separately.

18. Seminar adjourned at a 16:00 on December 13, 1991.