Da Nang (VNA)ꦛ – Representatives from the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM)’s members, the United Nations (UN) and its agencies gathered for an ASEM Summit on disaster risk management in the central city of Da Nang on September 14.

Themed “Innovation & Technology in Resilience based Sustainable Debelopment”, the event offered a chance for ASEM countries to discuss and share the best practical lessons on technology application in managing natural disasters, while enhancing ASEM cooperation in implement t he Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015- 2020, with a vision to 2030, for sustainable development goals. Participants to the two-day meeting are scheduled to discuss measures to bolster cooperation in sci-tech development within ASEM and the building of policy framework to promote disaster risk management and reduction. They will also talk the role played by renovation and technology in raising public awareness of disaster risk mitigation. In his opening remark, Petrovic Peter, Permanent Representative of the Slovak Republic to the European Union (EU) hailed ASEM members’ efforts in managing and reducing disaster risks. Negative impacts caused by climate change, unusual and unpredicted development of natural disasters have disordered the lives of people, especially those in rural areas, and adversely affected the reslisation of the UN Millennium Development Goals, he stressed. He called on countries in the region and the world to work closely in natural disaster response and climate change adaptation. Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Hoang Van Thang said the impacts of climate change and economic development, excessive use of natural resources, especially water, and incomprehensive management have increased disaster risks, threatening Vietnam’s sustainable development, especially in the Mekong River Delta. He underlined the importance of sci-tech and renovation and creativity in improving disaster risk management capacity. Thanks to remote sensing technology, satellite image and mobile communication network, the early forecast of storms and the timely provision of storm information for offshore ships and fishermen have minimised risks at sea, he noted. He stressed the need to share experience and information, promote cooperation in research, set up a network of sci-tech organisations, and enhance technical assistance within ASEM, saying that these will help the member nations better their disaster risk management capacity. According to th e Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR) , over 1.5 billion people were annually impacted by natural disasters globally. Impacts caused by climate change, rapid population growth and urbanisation, and environmental depression directly affected the people. The 3 rd UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan in March last year called for urgent initiatives to reduce disaster risks and build a sustainable development community adaptable to climate change. /.