The Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Central Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Control yesterday co-held a seminar in Hanoi to discuss ways to deal with natural disasters. At the conference, Vietnamese experts presented a draft ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response, which aims to minimize human and material losses caused by the disasters in the region. Vietnam pays special attention to mitigating disasters and emergency response as it is one of the few countries adversely affected by global warming, the experts said. The participants also proposed some methods to increase ASEAN’s capacity to make correct forecasts and release early warnings to minimize the losses. They called on ASEAN countries to incorporate natural disasters mitigation into their national development programs to cope with global warming and ensure sustainable development. Natural disasters left 481 dead and missing in Vietnam and caused total losses of VND23.2 trillion ($1.25 billion) in 2009, nearly doubling 2008’s figure.
