A total of 42 countries from Asia and Pacific Ocean gathered in
Beijing Tuesday to exchange views on disaster control and to
enhance regional cooperation in this field.
"Since natural disasters are the common threat to people's lives
and development, it is imperative to conduct international and
regional cooperation," said Hua Jianmin, Chinese State Councilor
and secretary general of the State Council, when addressing the
opening ceremony of Tuesday's Asian Conference on Disaster
Reduction.
Hua said that China will adopt a series measures to conduct
disasters relief works with other countries, including building up
an "International Drought Prevention Center" in collaboration with
the Secretariat of International Strategy for Disaster Reduction of
the United Nations.
"China is now negotiating with some Asian countries and regional
organizations on bilateral or multilateral agreements on disaster
relief," Hua said.
"We are ready to share with other Asian countries and related
international organizations our data from satellite 'Fengyun II'
and the small satellite constellation on environment and disaster
monitoring and forecast, and parameters measured by China's seismic
stations network," he said.
Besides, China will hold the "China-ASEAN (Association of
Southeast Asian Nations) Seminar on Disaster Prevention and
reduction" in 2006, to enabling the exchanges in disaster reduction
among Asian countries.
The country also vowed to sponsor the "International Workshop on
Disaster Prevention and Relief," for the 26 members of the
International Civil Defense Organization next year.
"Though China is a developing country with limited economic and
technological power, we would offer a helping hand to other
developing countries in building their disaster reduction
capability," Hua said.
Tuesday's meeting is considered as an important follow up action
of the World's Conference on Disaster Reduction held last January
in Kobe of Japan, on which the "Hyogo Framework for Action
2005-2015" was adopted to provide a comprehensive disaster-relief
roadmap for building resilient nations and communities.
"Representatives of 42 Asian countries will go on discussing on
how the political and financial commitments made in Kobe can be
translated into concrete action at the regional, national and local
levels," said Salvano Briceno, Director of International Strategy
for Disaster Reduction on behalf of the United Nation's
Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Asia, as the world's largest continent in terms of size and
coastal line, has complicated climate types and the gravest
meteorological and hydrological disasters in the world. It also has
the world's largest number of volcanoes and holds the most frequent
occurrence of earthquakes.
The number of natural disasters that happened in the last decade
of the 20th century in Asia accounted for 43 percent of that of the
world's total.
Calamities, such as the rainstorms and floods in Bangladesh in
1970, the terrific earthquake in north China's Tangshan, in 1976,
and the tsunami and earthquakes in the Indian Ocean in 2004, had
incurred great losses of life and property in the disaster-stricken
countries.
(Xinhua News Agency September 28, 2005)