China to put disaster risk management into national plan

China will upgrade its comprehensive ability of disaster relief by incorporating risk management of disasters into a new national development plan, a Chinese official said Tuesday.

Jia Zhibang, vice-minister of civil affairs, said at the Asian Conference on Disaster Reduction held in Beijing that "we shall carry out nationwide surveys of disaster reduction capacity to provide reference for governments of all levels in decision making."

He promised that China will implement the principles of the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015 which was set out in January this year in Hyogo, Japan on reducing world-wide disasters loss.

China is one of the countries most affected by natural disasters in the world. Floods, droughts and earthquakes cause the worst damages, accounting for 80 to 90 percent of the total losses in China, official sources said.

Two thirds of land territories of China are threatened by floods to various extents. Nearly half of the cities are located on earthquake fault lines with high risks of disasters, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

By Sept. 20 this year, natural disasters across China in 2005 killed 1,630 people and caused losses of 163 billion yuan (19.9 billion US dollars), according to the ministry.

China has established a preliminary national natural disaster emergency response system. The central government has so far mapped out an overall emergency response system, 25 special plans and 80 departmental plans.

The Asian Conference on Disaster Reduction, commenced on Tuesday in Beijing, aims at sharing disaster management experiences and promoting regional cooperation on disaster reduction. The conference has attracted more than 350 participants from 42 countries, regions and 13 international organizations.

Source: Xinhua