Efi Respati of Indonesia and Untima Sangsubhan of Thailand successfully completed the third cycle of the AMIS Exchange Programme. Earlier this year, Damir Zhaksylykov of Kazakhstan had already received his diploma after completing a condensed curriculum.

For the AMIS Secretariat and the visiting experts the Programme offered a great learning opportunity on how to improve information flows into the AMIS market database. Discussions with the three participating countries particularly focused on establishing and fine-tuning commodity balance sheets according to AMIS standards. Such harmonization is necessary to allow the Secretariat make improved forecasts at the global level.

In the case of Indonesia, a main challenge will be to better use existing information from various public and private sources. In her work for the Center for Agricultural Data and Information Systems at the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture Efi will now try to consolidate this information into a single balance sheet. Similarly, Untima will work with her colleagues at the Office of Agricultural Economics within the Thai Ministry of Agriculture to adjust national data systems to better meet AMIS requirements. Finally, Damir's visit will be instrumental in establishing a fruitful collaboration with the Kazakh Ministry of Agriculture, especially since Damir has recently been nominated as the country's official focal point to AMIS.