(photo: Van Duc/ VNA)

The Ha Long Declaration on Early Action in ASEAN Disaster Management is an initiative of Vietnam as the Chair of ASEAN Committee for Natural Disaster Management.  

Muhd Harrith Rahidi, Director of Brunei’s National Center of Disaster Management, said: “Vietnam has demonstrated the leadership role by implementing many activities with positive results. We will continue to implement good initiatives that Vietnam has started so that together countries can take early action and strengthen our capacity to respond to natural disasters.”

At the conference, participants said that ASEAN is one of the regions facing many challenges due to climate change and natural disasters. Natural disasters have caused serious consequences to people’s lives and economy and slowed down the development of many places. ASEAN countries should build new cooperation mechanisms, increase information sharing, establish connection channels at all levels, and organize training cooperation programs.

The Meeting also discussed oriented activities of the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Centre), the ASEAN Leaders’ Declaration on Sustainable Resilience adopted at the 43rd ASEAN Summit in Indonesia, and update ASEAN’s humanitarian assistance to Myanmar.