By Sidi Mohamed
DOHA: Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani yesterday opened the Fifth Civil Defence Exhibition and Conference.
The exhibition is being held under the theme “Sustainable Development and Disaster Management” at the recently-opened Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre near the City Centre.
The inaugural ceremony was attended by a number of ministers, heads of the diplomatic missions , senior government officials and experts from Qatar as well as overseas.
A documentary film was screened at the opening ceremony on climate change and its adverse impact on sustainable development in various countries across the world in general and the Gulf region, in particular.
Following the opening ceremony, the Prime Minister took a tour of the exhibition and visited various stalls and pavilions where he was briefed about the latest safety and security equipment, machinery and advanced technology on display.
The Premier later witnessed the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Ministry of Interior, represented by the Civil Defence General Administration, and the British University of Central Lancashire, to launch a “Fire Management Diploma” course at Ras Laffan Emergency and Safety College from early next year.
Staff-Brigadier Abdullah Mohamed Al Suwaidi, Civil Defence General Director, and the head of the organising committee, in a speech, said that the hosting of this event in Qatar comes as part of world focus on disaster management. It is an essential part of Qatar National Vision 2030.
Sustainable development is a development which enhances prosperity, economic opportunities, social welfare and environmental protection, through achieving cooperation in solving problems of humanitarian, cultural, social and economical dimensions and through supporting basic freedoms, said Al Suwaidi.
Climate change poses severe threat to the world and this underscores the need to find solutions well in time.
In the past few years, the international community has witnessed an increase in the number of natural disasters and environmental disasters, Al Suwaidi said.
The world will work in the coming days through the “Sendai” framework on seven international goals to reduce disaster risk and to mange it through over the next 15 years.
Among these goals, said Al Suwaidi, is to reduce the number of deaths and the number of people affected by disasters during the period 2020 to 2030, and also to increase the number of countries which have a national strategy to reduce the risks from disasters.
The civil defence conference is a serious step towards achieving global partnership for reducing disasters and it also reflects Qatar’s role and its social responsibilities on both regional and international levels. We hope the conference would achieve its targeted goals, said Al Suwaidi.
Saber Hossain Chowdhury, President of inter-Parliamentary Union, talked about the attention given by the United Nations to sustainable development issues and reducing the adverse impacts of disasters.
From 2000 to 2011 the world has lost $1.7bn due to disasters.
In the Arab world, awareness about disasters and environment issues had increased, he said.
Some 97 companies from Qatar, the GCC and rest of the world are participating in the three-day exhibition and conference.
The Peninsula
