Crisis Management Offices in the Offing

Source: China Daily

All cities and counties in Guangdong province are expected to set up their emergencies management office in the first half this year, the provincial emergency management office said recently.

Following the set-up of the Guangdong Emergency Management Office last May, all cities and 80 percent of counties in the province began building their emergency management offices in summer last year.

"All counties will have their own emergency offices before June," Luo Ou, the vice general secretary of Guangdong provincial government, said.

The provincial emergency office has set up an emergency management experts database. Famous medical expert Zhong Nanshan will lead the management expert team.

These experts will play a key role during emergency situations.

"The county-level emergency offices will also set up their own expert team," Luo said.

He also added the provincial office will release a Guangdong Emergency Management Scheme very soon. The scheme will guide all emergency management offices around the province.

Since the provincial office was set up, it has dealt with a large number of emergency situations, such as ship-hit bridge accident in Foshan city on June 15 last year, fire accident in Guangzhou in October 12 last year, and the snow disaster that struck the whole South China in the spring this year.

Luo said the provincial emergency office would seek cooperation with Hong Kong, Macao, and other nine provinces in the Pan-Pearl River Delta (PPRD).

A PPRD emergency management cooporation framework agreement will be signed in June during the fifth PPRD forum in Nanning, capital of Guangxi province.

Luo said all members of the PPRD will continue to push the process of their cooperation in emergency management, especially after the devastated earthquake in Sichuan province happened.

Also, the Guangdong emergency management office is attaching importance to enhancing common people's knowledge of emergency management.

Earlier this month, the office printed more than 50,000 booklets titled Are You Ready and distributed the booklets free to residents.

The booklet contains knowledge about how to handle accidents and any unexpected events.

"The booklets have been well accepted, we will print more booklets in the future," Luo said.

[More Guangdong and Pan PRD News]

Editor: Shanna Chu