- Hon. Jagath Pushpakumara, Minister of Coconut Development and Janatha Estate Development informed the Cabinet that a delegation from Sri Lanka led by him had attended this Conference, on the invitation of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations' Regional Office in Bangkok. Representatives from member countries such as China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Philippines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tonga, Vietnam and Vanuatu had participated at this Conference. The objective of this Conference was to take stock of the current status of the Coconut Industry in each of the 18 Asia Pacific Coconut Community (APCC) countries, to identify the major constraints and propose solutions for future development. Several recommendations for both production and processing sectors had been made at this Conference for followup action to be taken by the individual countries, the FAO and APCC.