"The presence of the center is aimed at mitigating the impacts of disasters and it is expected to be commissioned at the time when an ASEAN summit is held here," the Vice-President`s spokesperson, Yopie Hidayat, told newsmen here on Wednesday.
Hidayat briefed the media after he accompanied Vice-President Boediono in receiving ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan who conveyed a report on some important events in 2011 connected to ASEAN when Indonesia is the chair this year.
According to Hidayat, the mitigation center will analyze the many forms of natural disaster within ASEAN, something to be done by adopting the model for such mitigation center as developed in Japan.
In the meeting, Secretary General Surin reported the planned holding of ASEAN Global Dialogue which is to be organized in Bali to bring together the representatives of the World Bank and the business sectors.
The event is scheduled for October or November in which some leaders of major countries, including the United States, are expected to attend. Indonesia and ASEAN as a whole will be able to take a lesson from the experiences of those developed countries.
Other important events will also include the Conference of ASEAN Connectivity where investors from many countries are to be invited so that they may explore the potentials within ASEAN.
This particular conference will discuss the various ASEAN connectivity projects whose master plans have been agreed on in the national levels of each ASEAN member states, he said.(*)
(KR-VFT/HAJM/S012)
Editor: Ruslan Burhani
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
