The dialogue, co-organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Vietnam’s National Committee for Research and Rescue, is in response to Vietnam’s initiatives to cope with the huge destruction caused by natural disasters.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Vu Dzung, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, said the dialogue made a concrete contribution to enhancing international cooperation and sharing their experiences with APEC colleagues.
The Asia - Pacific region has been suffering the most disasters in the world, 71 percent of all total global disasters, including SARS in 2003 and the tsunami in 2004, which badly affected the area’s economy. Therefore, a strategy for regional cooperation is necessary to foster a better understanding of emergency preparedness between the private sector, international organisations and governments.
Delegates from Thailand, Chinese Taipei and Vietnam shared their experiences on relief, recovery and reconstruction after catastrophic events. It is expected that this will lead to the creation of institutional collaboration mechanisms for emergency situations.
Da Nang City lying on the central coastline has been often hit by adverse weather. Its shortage of fishing boats, poor infrastructure and failure to get weather forecasts or timely warnings has incurred huge losses caused by natural disasters.
Therefore, regional cooperation should be promoted to improve public awareness and work out a communications link between offshore fishing boats and the mainland. In addition, a support group should be established to facilitate these activities.
The result of the seminar will be reported to the Task Force for Emergency Preparedness (TFEP) 2 and the APEC Foreign and Trade Ministerial Summit in 2008.
A dialogue on emergency preparedness among the APEC economies, the business community, key international and regional partners is being held in Hanoi on April 24-25.
Nhat Hong
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