Disaster response and rescue work discussed

PANO - On November 11, Military Region 5 (MR 5), the People's Army Newspaper (PAN), and the Department of Search and Rescue under the General Staff of Vietnam People’s Army jointly held a talk themed "Improving the effectiveness of disaster response and search and rescue work". Present at the event were Phan Dien, Chairman of the management board of the Central Region Natural Disaster Prevention and Support Fund, Lieutenant General Tran Quang Phuong, MR 5's Political Commissar, and commanders of units in the Central Highlands and Central Region.

PAN's Editor-in-Chief, Major General Pham Van Huan; Deputy Commander and Chief-of-Staff of MR 5 Major General Ngo Quy Duc; and Deputy Head of the Department of Search and Rescue, Senior Colonel Pham Van Ty, co-chaired the talk.

PAN's Editor-in-Chief Major General Pham Van Huan speaking at the talks

During the talk, participants shared views that the country's climate witnessed complex and unpredictable changes over the past time. Hence, raising awareness and responsibilities of individuals and groups of all walks of life will be an important task for coping with natural disasters and implementing search and rescue work.

At first, Major General Duc briefed attendees on the talk's purposes and statistics on material and human losses due to natural disasters in the area over the past time. Accordingly, the region had to experience dozens of tropical cyclones or typhoons, with thousands of people killed or injured, and hundreds of thousands of houses collapsed.

Along with the efforts of troops participating in disaster relief and search and rescue, the regional chain-of-command and Party committee issued directions and concrete plans to raise their troops' responsibility in dealing with natural disasters and carrying out search and rescue missions.

Delegates at the talks

Mr. Phan Dien said that the discussion was a timely and effective information dissemination drive, which contributed to providing experiences and measures for units, localities and people. However, its contents should be renewed and its forms should be diversified to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the work, Deputy Commander and Chief-of-Staff of the Da Nang municipal Military Command, Senior Colonel Phan Cong Hien stressed.

In addition, General Duc proposed the region's seven solutions in the field, stressing that collaboration among relevant forces is the most important element to ensure the success of the work.

Apart from sharing experience in the field, delegates also underscored the army's role in natural disaster prevention and rescue missions. Thousands of troops actively helped to evacuate distressed households and their property away from the two recent cyclones in the Central Highlands and the Central Region of Vietnam.

Over 20 papers sent to the talk's organizers primarily focused on analyzing issues and proposing measures to effectively respond to it in the time to come. On behalf of the organizing panel, PAN's Editor-in-Chief, Major General Huan announced that the talk concluded with success, meeting all the set targets. The organizing panel would continue studying the delegates' proposals to provide timely advice to leaders of the National Committee for Search and Rescue and the Ministry of National Defense, contributing to improving the effectiveness of natural disaster prevention and rescue work in the time to come, he added.