Public Private Partnership is very important part of disaster risk reduction

Reporter: For the first question, I heard you mention PPP at the sessions this morning, I'm wondering, how is this important in preventing disasters?

Mr. Wei-Sen Li: I think Public Private Partnership is very important part of disaster risk reduction. First of all, the private sector especially think about the interaction to business, which could effect people's lives severely. So this is why in recent years in APEC we promote the Business Continuity Plan; one, to enhance the disaster resilience for the private sector, especially for small and medium enterprises. Like in Vietnam, many small and medium enterprises, so we have had one training workshop in Vietnam to introduce the concept of Business Continuity Plan. And through the channel of Public Private Partnership, it will be a very good channel to engage every key stakeholder in our society to work on disaster risk reduction.

Mr. Wei-Sen Li: Yes, I think it is a good point in the morning session. APEC should further consider the kind of impact from natural disasters. Especially, earlier this year we had a typhoon hit Vietnam, and also yesterday – the day before yesterday – an earthquake also hit Mexico. That is a good example, we should work together to share a lot of knowledge and experience on Public Private Partnership for disaster risk reduction.

Reporter: Can you tell me about the promotion of science and technology research at this conference?

Mr. Wei-Sen Li: At this workshop we highlighted several items about technology. First, about information and communication technology for disaster risk reduction, even for emergency powers. Second, from this morning's presentation, we found that there are a lot of new technologies being implemented in Vietnam for flood control. And another one is, we highlight the importance of risk assessment and impact assessment, based on a scenario, because want some information for our society, so we need some risk assessment to tell people about what kind of impact could happen in the future. So I think those are some points highlighted by this workshop.

Reporter: What about the cooperation to enhance the application of science and technology for natural disaster prevention?

Mr. Wei-Sen Li: Actually, no matter bilateral or multilateral, sharing of science and technology is very very welcomed by all member economies. And now I think a lot of this kind of collaboration is already underway, but in the future I think, first of all, like mentioned by other participants, we should have a kind of showcase to demonstrate the current achievements by different member economies about science and technology for disaster reduction, so other member economies can learn from this experience, or try to collaborate with them to introduce technology for the future.

Reporter: Thank you very much!