MYANMAR hosted the ninth meeting of the ASEAN Com­mittee on Disaster Manage­ment (ACDM) Working Group on Preparedness, Response and Recovery and related meetings in Yangon yesterday.

Deputy Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettle­ment U Soe Kyi said the meet­ing is an implementation of the commitment of ACDM to en­hance disaster preparedness, response and recovery in the ASEAN region.

Over the past decade, ASEAN has shifted from focus­ing on politics and economics to focusing on socioeconom­ic development and disaster management.

Like other ASEAN mem­ber states, Myanmar enacted the Disaster Management Law and Regulations in 2013 and 2015 respectively to ensure effective and rapid disaster management activities. The ACDM also redrafts the ASE­AN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response (AADMER) Work Programme and the work committee members should draft the work programmes that can be implemented prac­tically based on the resources of the member countries and the region.

The meeting was attended by the co-chairs of the Working Groups from Myanmar, Malay­sia and Singapore, representa­tives from the Working Group member states, Brunei Darus­salam, Laos, the Philippines and Thailand, representatives from the ASEAN Secretariat and the ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Cen­tre (AHA Centre), and repre­sentatives from Indonesia and Timor Leste as observers. The meetings will be held for two days. — MNA/KTZH