Natural disasters result in around 450 people being killed or going missing, and a loss of 1.2-1.5 GDP each year in Vietnam.
These are great losses for developing countries like Vietnam, said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) at a meeting in Hanoi on July 19 to announce the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction 2011 (GAR 11).
MARD Deputy Minister Dao Xuan Hoc said that Vietnam is affected by many kinds of natural disasters every year, including floods, landslides, droughts, tropical storms and hail. Natural disasters seem to have become more complicated as they are being affected by global climate change, Hoc said.
The GAR11 focuses on the need to carefully and comprehensively calculate the losses and damages caused by natural disasters and propose a new model for risk management.
The GAR11 is a major initiative of the United Nations that contributes to the Hyogo Framework of Action (HFA) through monitoring risk patterns, trends and progress in disaster risk reduction, while providing guidance to governmental and non-governmental organizations for cooperation in reducing the risks of natural disasters.
The GAR11 was announced at the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction on May 10, 2011 in Geneva, Switzerland, in Thailand on May 23 and in Vietnam on July 19.