"Dr. Kristalina Georgieva is EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid, and Crisis Response. Her portfolio includes providing emergency assistance and relief to victims of natural disasters or armed conflicts outside the European Union," the ASEAN Foundation said in a statement here on Wednesday.
Her tasks include ensuring that goods and services get to crisis zones quickly. Goods include essential supplies, specific foodstuffs, medical equipment, medicines and fuel.
Services may include medical teams, water purification teams, and logistic support. Goods and services reach the disaster areas via EU`s partners.
Commissioner Georgieva obtained her M.A. in Political Economy and Sociology and a Ph.D. in Economic Sciences for her dissertation on environmental policy at the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 1991, she conducted a post graduate research in environmental policy at MIT, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Since 1993 for the next four years she became an Associate Professor at the University of National and World Economy where she was also a research fellow at the London School of Economics, and spent one year as Visiting Professor at the Fiji University of the South Pacific and the Australian National University.
She is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Before joining the European Commission in February 2010, Dr. Georgieva has held various positions at the World Bank where she is Vice President and Corporate Secretary of the World Bank Group.
The other speakers on the public lecture, s held on Monday (Sept 12), included Dr. William Sabandar, the Director of Corporate Affairs at the ASEAN Secretariat.
He obtained a PhD in Development Studies from the University of Canterbury, New Zaeland in 2004 and conducted research on transport development and rural economy.
Dr. Sabandar was Director for Nias Islands Recovery, Agency for Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of Aceh and Nias (BRR Aceh-Nias) since 2005. Dr. Sabandar talked about the role of ASEAN in the post-Nargis Recovery in Myanmar.
He was appointed Special Envoy of the Secretary General of ASEAN to the Post-Nargis Recovery in Myanmar for a year. The lectures and presentations of the two speakers have broadened public horizons on the issues of new strategies and cooperation between ASEAN and the European Union in disaster management.
(Tz.F001/H-NG/F001/O001)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
