Research institutions from China and Switzerland signed an agreement Friday in Harbin to cooperatively study the disaster emergency system.

Experts say that the cooperation will be of great significance in establishing an international disaster early warning mechanism.

According to the agreement, the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) and the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche will jointly research such fields as disaster risk management, regional economic safety and disaster early warning, the development of a management system for urban emergency source, and a training program for top leaders in public safety management.

Walter Ammann, director of the Swiss institute, said various kinds of pollution deteriorate the world climate and bring about more frequent natural disasters.

He said all countries should try their best in reducing pollution and pay much attention to disaster prevention and control.

Professor Wang Shaoyu from HIT said an integrated disaster emergency system is urgently needed to deal with the worsening climate, which aims at gathering and analyzing information collected from all disaster relief departments and then providing possible solutions.

Ammann, who will be the chairman of the 2006 International Disaster Reduction Conference, said the cooperation between China and Switzerland in this field will especially focus on the urban emergency resource management system based on advanced information technology.

He said that in the face of increasing natural disasters, the international community needs to have a coordinated strategy to forecast and prevent, so as to minimize losses.

Source: Xinhua