Hoang Duc Thao, President and General Director of BUSADCO introduces the firm’s latest wave force breaking solution (Photo: VNA) Nghe An (VNA) – The building of disaster risk assessment tools for enterprises is significant in improving their awareness of the risks, thus encouraging them to enhance preparedness capacity rather than focusing on disaster recovery, said a representative from the Asia Foundation.
Talking with reporters on the sidelines of the 11th APEC Senior Disaster Management Officials Forum in central Nghe An province, Nguyen Tri Thanh, Senior Programme Officer for Environment and Sustainable Development of the Asia Foundation - a US-based non-profit international development organisation - held that a majority of businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, are highly aware of their role and responsibility in disaster management.
However, their active moves in the field remain modest, he said, attributing the situation to a lack of necessary tools to evaluate the impacts that natural disasters and climate change may pose to their business operations.
The Asia Foundation has worked with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of the Mekong Delta province of Long An and the Vietnam Forests and Delta Programme to build such tools, thus helping them access information and data to build their own disaster management strategies, he said.
Along with the provision of sufficient tools, Thanh also pointed to the need for the Government to build business-cored policies in disaster management.
He proposed the supplementation of disaster risk management in policy framework on public-private partnership (PPP) mechanism, thus creating chances for businesses to join the Government’s efforts in the field.
Over the past five years, the Asia Foundation has helped enhance disaster prevention capacity for about 2,000 enterprises from 20 localities nationwide, while strengthening the engagement of the business community in policy and law-making, Thanh added.
Sharing Thanh’s opinion, Hoang Duc Thao, President and General Director of the Ba Ria- Vung Tau Urban Sewerage and Development Company (BUSADCO), said that a model of PPP should be developed in science and technology research for disaster risk mitigation.
He said that the cooperation mechanism between the Government and businesses should be more transparent, and the State should focus on technical and financial management since the current management system is overlapping.
Thao also suggested the formation of a made-to-order partnership mechanism, with investors’ higher responsibility and guarantee for their products.
Within the framework of the 11th APEC Senior Disaster Management Officials Forum held from September 21-22, suppliers of natural disaster risk management solutions, including the BUSADCO, Trung Nam Group and the Vietnam Academy for Water Resources, also introduced their latest technologies in the field.-VNA
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