With decades of experience as a leading voice in Southeast Asian agricultural policy, including in ministerial positions under two governments, Secretary William Dar will explore mutually beneficial policy reform opportunities for the UAE and the Philippines.

William D. Dar has been Secretary of the Philippines Department of Agriculture since 2019, having served in the same role in 1998-99 under President Joseph Estrada. Mr Dar previously led the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Agricultural Research and the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development. In 2014 he founded the InangLupa Movement Inc., which advocates for agricultural modernisation and rural industrialisation. Mr Dar was also director of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), institutionalising a strategy of inclusive market-oriented development in which farmers became active participants in their own welfare.