Nghe An wishes to learn from APEC's experience in disaster prevention
(Baonghean.vn) - The APEC Senior Officials Meeting on Disaster Management is a forum for APEC economies to learn and share experiences, aiming to improve disaster risk management capacity.
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| About 200 delegates from APEC economies attended the conference. Photo: Reporter Group |
Within the framework of APEC 2017 activities in Vietnam, the 11th APEC Senior Officials Meeting on Disaster Risk Management was organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in coordination with the APEC 2017 National Committee and the People's Committee of Nghe An province.
Attending the conference held on the morning of September 21 in Vinh City were Mr. Hoang Van Thang - Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development; Mr. Dinh Viet Hong - Vice Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee; Mr. Ngo Toan Thang - Deputy Director of the 2017 APEC National Secretariat; representatives of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment; senior officials from 16 Asia-Pacific economies; representatives of the command boards for natural disaster prevention and search and rescue of provinces and cities of Vietnam; international organizations in Vietnam, representatives of ministries, branches, institutes, universities; representatives of the private sector participating in the Conference and exhibiting. |
At the opening session, Mr. Hoang Van Thang - Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development assessed: Asia-Pacific is the region that suffers the most natural disaster risks in the world. In particular, Vietnam often suffers from many natural disasters: storms, floods, droughts...
“Just 1 month ago, 3 serious floods and landslides occurred in 2 northern provinces of Vietnam, causing heavy losses in human lives and property. And less than 1 week ago, storm No. 10, internationally known as Doksuri, made landfall in 3 central provinces, one of which was Nghe An. Vinh City, where we are holding the conference today. This is a strong storm, with a frequency of once every 30 years,” said Deputy Minister Hoang Van Thang.
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| Delegates chairing the conference. Photo: Reporter Group |
Sharing with senior officials from APEC economies, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development said that in order to reduce natural disaster risks, in addition to improving emergency response capacity and better recovery after natural disasters, Vietnam also implements solutions such as restoring forest ecosystems, mangrove forests, wetlands, promoting green growth, integrating natural disaster risk management into the activities of sectors associated with improving forecasting and early warning capacity, applying integrated flood management according to river basins, and improving community capacity.
“Vietnam also faces many challenges of natural disaster risks that we do not have enough experience to effectively respond to,” Deputy Minister Thang frankly acknowledged, affirming that the conference is a great opportunity to share Vietnam’s experiences, as well as learn valuable experiences from international delegates, and together improve disaster risk management capacity.
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| Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Hoang Van Thang delivered the opening speech at the conference. Photo: Reporter Group |
On behalf of the leaders of Nghe An province, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Dinh Viet Hong welcomed the delegates to the conference and introduced some outstanding features of Nghe An.
Regarding the issue of natural disaster risk management and response, the Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee also said that since the beginning of 2017, Nghe An has experienced 21 tornadoes and lightning strikes, directly affected by storms No. 2, 4, 10 and 2 flash floods.
“To promptly overcome the damage caused by storms and floods, the government and people of Nghe An have quickly mobilized all resources to search for missing people, promptly support families with dead and injured people, and at the same time focus on quickly restoring production, stabilizing life and are currently continuing to repair damage to traffic works, irrigation works, dykes and other infrastructure works,” said Mr. Dinh Viet Hong.
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| Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Dinh Viet Hong hopes that the conference will be a good opportunity for Nghe An to receive valuable information related to natural disaster prevention. Photo: Reporter Group |
Highlighting the challenges and difficulties in natural disaster prevention and control in Nghe An province, the Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee hoped that the conference would be a good opportunity to receive valuable information related to natural disaster prevention and control in general and emergency response to natural disasters in particular, as well as learn valuable experiences in natural disaster prevention and control shared by delegates.
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| The first plenary session of the conference took place in the form of interactive discussions. Photo: Reporter Group |
On the same morning, senior officials from APEC economies attended plenary session 1: Overview of information technology application and enhancing regional cooperation in addressing natural disaster risks.
With the interactive discussion format, the successes in applying advanced technology in disaster prevention and control were shared, questioned and discussed by economies.
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| Leaders of ministries and Nghe An province visited the exhibition booths on the sidelines of the conference. Photo: Reporter Group |
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| Representatives take souvenir photos. Photo: PV |
PV Group
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