Doha: Under the patronage of the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the Fifth Civil Defense Exhibition and Conference commenced today in Doha.
Director General of the General Administration of Civil Defense and head of the organizing committee Fifth Civil Defense Exhibition and Conference Staff Brigadier Abdullah Al Suwaidi stressed that the conference and exhibition of civil defense is one of the most prominent exhibitions in this field at GCC level.
Brigadier Al Suwaidi stated that the theme of the conference ‘Sustainable Development and Disaster Reduction’, reflects the importance of this issue to all world countries. It also shows Qatar's keenness on promoting the efforts for achieving sustainable development as a core part of Qatar National Vision 2030, he added.
Delivering Qatar's speech before the opening session of the conference, Brigadier Al Suwaidi said "We hope that the conference will be a success in addressing the issue which has attracted the interest of the world public opinion, as many countries are exposed to many of volcanoes, earthquakes and other hazards that require more efforts, coordination and cooperation among all states to protect communities from the harm of serious disasters."
He said that sustainable development promotes prosperity, economic opportunities, social welfare and environment conservation, to serve societies through cooperation in solving global issues which affect humanitarian, cultural, social and economic aspects of life.
Brigadier Al Suwaidi added that the world will work during the coming period in accordance with the Sendai conference framework to achieve seven global objective goals to guide the work on disaster risk reduction and management over the next fifteen years, including the reduction of global mortality rate and the number of people affected by disasters in the period between 2020-2030 in addition to reducing the damage tothe infrastructure through the development of disaster response mechanisms by 2030 and increasing the number of countries that have national and local strategies to reduce disaster risks and enhancing international cooperation with developing countries.
President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Saber Hossain Chowdhury for his part expressed his thanks to the State of Qatar and the support of HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al-Thani of the Civil Defence Exhibition and Conference.
Chowdhury said that the United Nations was focused on issues related to sustainable developments and facing natural disasters, the theme of this year's conference. He noted that the world has incurred losses from natural disasters worth $1.7 billion in the first 11 years of the new century.
He added that the threat of climate change could play a major role in increasing the rate of natural disasters. Chowdury noted however that Arab countries now have a growing focus on crisis management and sustainable development and praised Qatar in particular for its spending on infra-structure as it prepares for World Cup 2022.
QNA
