Union Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management attends the three-day conference of Asian Conference on Disaster Reduction 2021

1.          Since the Establishment of Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC), Myanmar has served as a member state and, like other member states, Myanmar has contributed the membership fees during the tenure of the civilian government in order to effectively receive technical assistance from the ADRC.
2. Usually, Asian Conference on Disaster Reduction was headed by the Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC) based in Japan. The conference was held for three days from December 14 to 16, 2021. Dr. Win Myat Aye, Union Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management also attended the conference.
3. At the conference, High Level Senior Representatives from the government of Japan, the government of Tajikistan, and the president of the ADRC gave opening speeches respectively. The head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and the President and CEO of Kokusai Kogyo Co.,Ltd also gave the Keynote Speeches.
4. This year’s conference was held with an overarching theme, “Time for Change and Transformation: the Road to a Resilient Asia.” About 130 representatives from respective Departments, research institutions, scientific and technical organizations, educational organizations and private organizations from Asia, landlocked and ASEAN countries joined the conference online. During the conference, the discussions were made on (1) Developing DRR Technologies that Meet Local Needs to Create a Safe, Secure, and Livable Society”, (2) Strengthening Disaster Preparedness: Education and Awareness Raising for Promoting Proactive DRR Actions, (3) Investing in Disaster Risk Reduction for a Resilient Society.
5. ASEAN countries including Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam presented their efforts to reduce disaster related risks at the regional and national levels by making use of Science and Technology such as Geographic Information System and Remote Sensing. It is very encouraging and inspiring to see their institution based and community based DRR activities on educating and awareness raising.
6. At this moment of crisis in disaster, Myanmar has also suffered from the manmade disaster, brutal military coup. Therefore all the continuous progress of disaster relief efforts using technology has ended in vain and Myanmar people are experiencing more severe suffering and losses. Lack of law enforcement and violent persecution by junta makes everyday lives of people insecure and harmful.
7. The only root cause of suffering all these social economic troubles is the military coup. The tasks of reducing the risk of disasters and other related dangers and developments could be resumed only after repelling and overcoming military coup.
8. It is a tragedy that Myanmar is lagging behind when other Asian countries are striving to accelerate disaster risk reduction efforts to keep abreast with the third world countries around the world. Nothing can fully figure out the sufferings and loss of Myanmar people if a severe natural disaster comes when they are being the victims of civil war and encountering the arson attack of terrorist junta at the same time due to the military coup. Therefore, in order to build a community which is resilient to and reduces from the disasters and other related risks, the most important and primary task which should have been done with all our hearts is to make the dictatorship collapse and disappear utterly from our land.