PANO – Representatives from 18 countries worldwide attended the Planning Staff Workshop-1 (PSW-1), under the Multinational Communications Interoperability Program (MCIP), in Hanoi on January 26th by the Vietnam’s National Committee for Search and Rescue in association with the USA Embassy in Vietnam.
The MCIP, initiated in 2003, aims at linking countries in the Asia Pacific Theater through communications channels to support humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations.
An MCIP annual cycle consists of three Planning Staff Workshops (PSWs) and a culminating capstone event “Pacific Endeavor”. Among them, the PSW-1 focuses on working out plans, contents, organizing methods and participants for the coming workshops.
During this event in Vietnam, member countries will share their experience in dealing with natural disasters, responding to search and rescue mission, studying processes for using communications equipment in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief activities.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Lieutenant General Pham Hoai Giang, Director of the Search and Rescue Department of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army cum Office Chief of the Vietnam’s National Committee for Search and Rescue, highly valued the MCIP’s results over the past time and underlined that the Vietnamese Government has actively extended cooperation with different states to find the most effective measures to improve natural disaster mitigation and control.
As scheduled, the PSW-1 will last till January 30th.
Translated by Pham Huy
Đăng ký: VietNam News