Posted on 24 Jul 2009

At ASEM 7, leaders of ASEM members discussed disaster preparedness and management. In the chair's statement, leaders reaffirmed the importance of conducting practical disaster preparedness and management and reconstruction cooperation with a view to promoting regional and national capacity building in disaster preparedness and management. The Meeting adopted the initiative of "ASEM Cooperation on Capacity Building of Disaster Relief" proposed by China and co-sponsored by Cambodia, Germany, Pakistan and Vietnam.

To implement the initiative, Ministry of Civil Affairs and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China jointly hosted the "ASEM Workshop on Cooperation of Capacity Building of Disaster Relief" from 27 to 30 May 2009 in Chengdu, Sichuan Province of China.