THAILAND, Tuesday 7 May 2013 – Opening Ceremony of ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM (ARF) Disaster Relief Exercise 2013 (DIREx 2013) was Co-Officiated by both His Excellency Mr. Plodprasop – Deputy Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand and His Excellency Mr. Bong-Hyun Kim – Deputy Minister of Multilateral and Global Affairs of the Republic of Korea. It was attended by the Heads of Delegation and participants from all the ARF Member Countries and NGOs.
His Excellencies reiterated the importance of such exercise to ensure the Member countries’ preparedness should such trajedy occurs, God forbid. His Excellencies further recalled trajedies; 26 Dec 2004 – TSUNAMI in Banda Aceh – killing over 230,000 people in fourteen countries, and inundating coastal communities with waves up to 30 meters (98 ft) high, 11 March 2011 – TSUNAMI in Sendai, Japan with the official death toll stood at 413, while 784 people were missing and 1,128 injured and March 2011 – BANGKOK FLOOD with at least 53 people have died and almost nine million people have been affected by the floods after localized heavy rains.
The flooding has affected 50 of Thailand’s 76 provinces, close to 160,000 ha (400,000 acres) of land have been submerged and around 5,000 households have been evacuated.
The Opening Ceremony marked the beginning of ARF DiREx 2013 with all participating and contributing countries geared off with their respective area of responsibilities. Brunei Darussalam’s Medical and CBRE Teams participate in scenarios that relates to their respective expertise alongside Teams’ from the Kingdom of Thailand and the Republic of Korea.
The exercise is a golden avenue for Brunei Darussalam to gain experiences and widen our knowledge from countries in particular those that has gone through such tragedies. Additionally, Brunei Darussalam is imprinting her footprint in Humanitarian and Disaster Relief arena as well as affirming our Defence Multilateral Cooperation. The Organizers have express their amazement in our professional level displayed by our Team in performing their duties.
