2010-07 - Korea IT Times

Event Preview
The 4th Asia Ministerial Conference
on Disaster Risk Reduction Will be Held
in Korea
The UN, The City of Incheon and NGOs Will Co-Host This Conference
Starting from October 25-28, 2010, the
4th UN Asian Ministerial Conference on
Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) will
be held in Songdo Convensia in Incheon,
Korea. The conference will be co-hosted
by the UN, the city of Incheon and nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs). The
opening ceremony will begin on October
26, 2010, at 10:00 A.M. This will mark the
4th time for this event. The 1st ever event
was held in China in 2005, while the 2nd
event was held in India in 2007 and in
Malaysia in 2008.
The theme of this conference is to discuss
topics related to "Disaster Risk Reduction
for Climate Change Adaptation."
It will focus particularly on the convergence
of disaster risk reduction, climate
change adaptation and available IT and
green technology. Other topics of discussion
include raising awareness and building
capacity for disaster risk reduction.
Through this conference, they want to develop
and share information, technology,
sound practices and lessons learned in climate
& disaster risk management amongst
all the participants. Lastly, they want to
promote the integration of disaster risk reduction
and climate change adaptation for
the development of green growth.
Currently, the AMCDRR committee is
preparing this conference by developing a
cooperative system which includes information
from government sectors, universities
and organizations. Through these efforts,
they want to emphasize the severity
of the dangers involving natural disasters
32 KOREA IT TIMES | July 2010
due to climate change as well as pursuing
a safer environment in the Asia-Pacific region.
There will be participants from all over
the world. Some participants include ministerial
officials from 62 Asian & Pacific
Nations, UN organizations and non-governmental
organizations (NGO). Participants
include representatives from Japan,
China, India, Malaysia, UAE, Maldives,
the United States and Australia. The conference
is expecting approximately 800
people to participate in this conference.
Participants hope that certain objectives
will be achieved through this conference.
First, they want to review the action taken
by the national governments and other
stakeholders for the implementation of
HFA as a follow up to the Beijing Action
for Disaster Risk Reduction in Asia, the
Delhi Declaration and the Kuala Lumpur
Declaration. Next, they want to establish a
practical and problem-solving system that
can prevent extreme disasters that are
caused due to climate change. They also
want to implement technical and tangible
solutions using the available cutting-edge
technologies and create policies that ultimately
prevent and reduce disaster risks
throughout the region. Lastly, they will
talk about finding out efficient methods to
share climate information as well as technical
developments in the field of disaster
management.
This conference will provide a forum for
participants to discuss natural disasters
and climate change as well as share information
and propose solutions. In the Asia-
Pacific region, there is a risk of certain natural
disasters as well as disasters caused by
climate change. Hopefully, through this
conference, there are resolutions and solutions
to make the public more aware of
these situations and to possibly prevent
these disasters from occuring.
Daniel Ko/ danielko@koreaittimes.com