Participants at the launch ceremony of a five-year project to improve the capacity of the Việt Nam’s Fire Fighting and Rescue Police on Monday morning in Hà Nội.—VNS Photo Nguyễn Hằng

A five-year plan to improve the capacity of Vietnam’s Firefighting and Rescue Police was launched on Monday morning in Hanoi.

The project was co-implemented by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Việt Nam and the Police Department of Firefighting, Prevention and Rescue under the Ministry of Public Security.

Speaking at the launch ceremony, a representative of the police department said the goal of the project was to improve the capacity of the firefighting and rescue police force of Việt Nam, contributing to ensuring the safety of life and property for people.

It also aimed to strengthen knowledge and skills for officers and soldiers of the fire fighting and prevention police force so that they could promptly and effectively handle assigned tasks, in accordance with the actual situation in Việt Nam, he said.

Firefighters at a fire drill in the Police Department of Fire Fighting, Prevention and Rescue in Hà Nội on Monday morning.— VNS Photo Nguyễn Hằng

Trainees of the project consisted of officers and soldiers of the police department, officers of Hà Nội-based University of Firefighting and Prevention, as well as officers and soldiers from 10 localities of Hà Nội, Hải Phòng, Hải Dương, Hưng Yên, Hà Nam, Nam Định, Ninh Bình, Thái Bình, Vĩnh Phúc and Bắc Ninh.

There would be six training courses under the project, consisting of initial practical training, rescue training, fire-engine driving training, fire-ladder-truck driving training, team-level leadership training and office-level leadership training.

Shinoda Takanobu, Senior Representative of JICA Việt Nam Office said at the event that response to fragility by providing countermeasures against disaster risks was one of the main priority areas of Japan’s ODA in Việt Nam.

There has been a long history of Japan’s support to Việt Nam in the area of firefighting and rescue, including a technical cooperation project implemented by JICA to support the University of Firefighting and Prevention since 2005, training cooperation activities between the Tokyo Firefighting Department and Hà Nội Fire Fighting Police in 2014, and the provision of used fire fighting vehicles to the Việt Nam Fire Fighting and Rescue Police force.

The project once again emphasised the importance of the support to fire fighting and rescue area among JICA’s activities in Việt Nam.

With the framework of the technical cooperation project, JICA planned to dispatch not only long-term experts but also several short-term experts in relevant areas.

Firefighters at a drill in the Police Department of Firefighting, Prevention and Rescue in Hà Nội on Monday morning. — VNS Photo Nguyễn Hằng

“With your kind cooperation and support to JICA’s experts during their assignment in Việt Nam, we hope that they can successfully implement the project activities and transfer their knowledge, techniques and experiences to all trainees of the project”, Takanobu said.

JICA expected that the project would contribute to improving the capacity of the firefighting and rescue force and the quality of training activities, making fire prevention activities more effective and mitigating damage of fire accidents to the Vietnamese people and society.

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyễn Chí Dũng, deputy director of the Fire Prevention, Rescue Training and Response Centre under the Ministry of Public Security said Japan was a country that suffered from many natural disasters, so Japanese rescue forces’ skills were believed to be very elite.

“Through the project, we hope to learn about Japanese skills of firefighting and rescue to improve our capability in the future,” he added.

He also said that Việt Nam's firefighting and prevention activities were facing many difficulties although the State and the Ministry of Public Security already invested more over the past time. The equipment was still rudimentary and lacking.

“We hope that, through the project, we will be provided with more advanced equipment to improve the fulfilment of our job,” Dũng said.

The firefighters also expected to learn advanced skills from the Japanese rescue force, such as rescuing people at high altitudes, rescuing people at depth, rescuing people on high-rise buildings and several other specific types of rescue. — VNS