Geneva (VNA) – Vietnamese Ambassador Duong Chi Dunghighlighted Vietnam’s achievements in natural disaster mitigation and climatechange response in his speech to a discussion session as part of the UnitedNations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Humanitarian Affairs Segment (HAS)in Geneva, Switzerland on June 23.
Dung, who is also head of Vietnam’s Permanent Mission to theUN, World Trade Organisation and other international organisations, saidVietnam has enforced the Law on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, thenational action plan on climate change response, the national strategy fornatural disaster prevention, response and mitigation until 2020, green growthstrategy and renewable energy development strategy until 2030, as well asshared experience in building an early-warning and flood forecast system, andsearch and rescue.
He called international attention to humanitarian issues arisingfrom impacts of El Nino/La Nina that resulted in serious drought, flooding andsaline intrusion in Vietnam and many other countries.
Reiterating Vietnam’s strong commitments to response toclimate change, Dung stressed that the involvement of people from allbackgrounds and strong international support are crucially important so thatnot any nation, region, community and individual are left behind in the regard.
According to him, Vietnam has been recognised as one of themost active members in the UN Development Progamme (UNDP)’s Response to El Ninoand La Nina.
Participants looked into humanitarian search and rescue inhigh-risk and affected areas, responsibilities of authorities and partiesconcerned, and respect to international law and relevant regulations.
This year, more than 141 million people in 37 countries needthe UN humanitarian assistance with a budget amounting to 23.5 billion USD, 6.2billion USD of which has been raised from philanthropists.
Since 1998, the HAS has provided an important platform forparticipants to discuss investment attraction and coordination for the UN’shumanitarian assistance activities.
ECOSOC is one of the six UN bodies in charge of sustainableeconomic, social and environment development.
Vietnam is one of the 54 ECOSOC members during the 2016-2018tenure.-VNA