Singapore says gene-altered organisms in pipeline

Scientists here are keen to promote consumer awareness of GMOs and boost a local industry ahead of a boom in the global GMO market, said Lim Pin, chairman of the new Genetic Modification Advisory Committee (GMAC), at a news briefing.

"This is a US$100 billion per year industry and is poised to grow to US$500 billion in the next 15 to 20 years...The potential is enormous and we have to try to make the first wave of economic opportunity," he said.

Singaporean companies have not introduced GMOs for sale or public consumption here or abroad but some have been engaged in research and development of GMOs such as insect-resistant rice strains and strains of cotton, Lim said.

GMAC deputy chairman Ngiam Tong Tau said the growing number of Singaporean GMO products in the pipeline prompted the establishment of GMAC.

"Our researchers are working on GMOs and we can see a lot of potential there. That's why we decided to form GMAC," Ngiam said. Lim said ensuring Singapore's regulatory structure was credible against international GMO safety standards was "the last piece in the jigsaw puzzle".

Singapore does not restrict the import of GMOs but prior to the establishment of GMAC there was no organised body to target the products for testing, said Chan Yiu Lin, a spokeswoman for the National Science and Technology Board, one of a dozen government agencies represented in GMAC.

GMAC would test foreign and locally produced GMOs -- drugs, vaccines, crops and microbes -- for safety and "substantial equivalence" in nutrient value to natural products and pass its recommendations to regulatory bodies, Lim said.

The multi-agency initiative includes representatives from the Primary Production Department and Ministry of Health, both regulatory bodies with legislative power.

GMAC would also advise on labelling, a thorny issue that has polarised politicians in Britain and the European Union where pressure is mounting from consumer groups to ban the import of genetically modified "Frankenstein foods". Lim said labelling of GMO products in Singapore and Asia would conform to consumers' choice over the degree of knowledge they demanded about the products.

"Labelling depends on the cultural environment of each country and on how much people have been informed...The keyword is trust," said Lim, who is also Vice Chancellor of the National University of Singapore.

"In Singapore we do things thoroughly and properly and I believe the people will be able to trust the judgement of GMAC. Provided we do our work properly, we should be 100 percent trusted," he said.

GMAC expects to set biosafety guidelines for GMO agricultural products by July and make recommendations about labelling by the end of this year, Lim said.