AquaFarms

Marine Aquaculture Solutions for the MENA Region

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DevCorp International and National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, Sign Memorandum of Understanding

October 16, 2007

Taipei, Taiwan

James Greenberg and Dr. Michael Lai sign documents.	James Greenberg, Chairman of DevCorp, and Dr. Michael Lai, President of Cheng Kung University, display signed copies of the agreement.	Dr. Huey Lang Yang,Director of Institute of Biotechnology at NCKU, responding to questions at the press conference.

James Greenberg, Chairman, DevCorp International and its aquaculture joint venture AquaFarms, and Dr. Michael Lai, President of National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Taiwan, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on October 16, 2007, to expand Taiwan’s excellent mariculture and industrial research and technology base to developmental projects in Saudi Arabia.  A first project will bring grouper and other tropical fin fish vaccines, used to grow specific pathogen-free fingerlings, to DevCorp’s mariculture projects in southern Saudi Arabia.  The designated joint venture company, FLY-Biotech, is based on research done by immunologist Dr. Huey Lang Yang, Director of the Institute of Biotechnology at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) and NCKU Distinguished Professor.

With the cooperation of an American firm, Raytheon Company, as part of an Economic Benefits program to Taiwan, DevCorp will continue to identify and implement private sector, cross border investments further commercializing Taiwan’s superb expertise in specific industries where Saudi Arabia, and potentially other Middle East countries, have significant competitive advantages.   Aquaculture and Plastics will be the first two focus sectors for such investments.  Taiwan has a superb technology base, but not necessarily the land mass, raw materials, or production/cost environment to maximize the value of these technologies.  Saudi Arabia with its 1800 km coast line of the Red Sea, its land mass, its significant hydrocarbon and petrochemical production base, and low cost financing offers great potential for the greater utilization of these technologies and know-how in these sectors for export to international markets.  

Taiwan’s superb aquaculture technology base is hampered by the local marine environment.  Volatile weather, insufficient useable coast line, a cold season, and increasing agriculture and industrial pollution hamper its fish farming industry.  Saudi Arabia’s tropical Red Sea with its pristine waters, year round growing conditions, calm seas, low cost financing, and low cost shipping to US, European, and Asian markets will allow aquaculture to expand dramatically year-round.  The excellent grouper and cobia vaccines developed by the research team at NCKU will further enhance the success of such aquaculture ventures.  Both Taiwan and Saudi Arabia currently import fish to feed their people.

Similarly, plastics processing depends on accessibility and pricing of feedstocks, financing, excellent infrastructure, and low cost shipping for export markets which Saudi Arabia has in abundance.

As Saudi Arabia diversifies its economy from dependence purely on oil and petrochemicals, Taiwan’s manufacturing, industrial, and agricultural expertise can enhance the development of Saudi Arabia’s industrial, agriculture, and mariculture sectors through joint-ventures that will marry Taiwan’s knowledge skills with Saudi Arabia’s extensive material and financing resources, and locational advantages vis a vis international markets. 

DevCorp International is a venture capital and project development group registered in Bahrain with branch offices in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia..  DevCorp’s subsidiary companies, Plastbau Middle East and AquaFarms, develop and implement projects in construction material manufacture and mariculture in the MENA region.  DevCorp also acts as General Partner of the Saudi Offset Limited Partnership, capitalized at $35 million by The Raytheon Company (USA) and Thales International (France), to research, invest in, and implement Saudi Arabian-based projects that meet the government offset requirements.  For more information, www.devcorpint.com.

National Cheng Kung University, located in Tainan City, Taiwan, is a distinguished research university with advanced research centers in bioscience and biotechnology, micro/nano science and engineering technology, and marine hydraulics as well as an international management sciences program drawing students from 70 different countries. For more information, www.ncku.edu.tw.