The Indonesian Republic declared its independence on 17 August 1945. Indonesia became a member of United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1948. The partnership was strengthened with the opening of a FAO country office in 1978. The agriculture sector of the republic has been supervised and regulated by the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture. The Indonesian Republic also nationalized many of its colonial economic infrastructures, institutions and businesses and inherited the agricultural system of its predecessor, the Dutch East Indies.