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A lot of players will emerge in the stem cell industry, which will include not only SMEs but also large companies. Stem cell related businesses will organically diversify into cell therapy, drug discovery, tailor-made medicine, and research reagents. This heralds a huge, new biotechnology industry. 2009 will be the year in which the stem cell business gathers real momentum. I think the APAC region has great potential to take the global initiative on the basis of the high- level technology developed here.

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If New Zealand’s biological industries are to do their share of feeding the world’s growing population, enhancing the quality of our environment in all respects and simultaneously growing the wealth of New Zealanders, both they and the New Zealand public will have to make some important decisions in the near future—many of them this year. With appropriate systems in place to minimize and manage risks, we should be able to reach a consensus that the year 2009 is the time to “proceed”.

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Within Asia, genomics and proteomics with clinical and agriculture applications are expected to be key drivers for the biotechnology industry in 2009. SEA countries backed by local government support will continue to compete to be top biotechnology hubs within the Asia Pacific region. Focusing on these opportunities, we are forecasting to increase our growth rate in 2009 over our 2008 performance.