VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam aims to build an organization that is specialized in coping with disasters, search and rescue.




Vice Chair of the central city of Da nang, Mr. Phung Tan Viet, has proposed to unify the steering committees of search and rescue, flood and storm control and anti-forest fires, in order to have a streamlined and powerful organization, which can be mobilized quickly.

Lieutenant General Tran Quang Khue, Vice Chair of the National Committee for Search and Rescue, cum Vice Chair of the Central Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Control, supported the proposal.

The government has assigned the Ministry of Home Affairs to compile a project titled “Building a system for controlling and coping with disasters, search and rescue”. The National Committee for Search and Rescue and the Home Affairs Ministry are working on this project.

Lieutenant General Tran Quang Khue said that many countries have ministerial level agencies on state of emergency, for example Russia’s Ministry of State of Emergency, France’s Civil Safety Agency, the US’ Department of Homeland Security, etc.

In Vietnam, coping with disasters, flood and storm, forest fires, search and rescue is the job of the entire political system, the entire people, with police force and the army as the core. However, the country aims to develop a specialized agency with modern equipment and professional staff, general Khue said.

“We cannot cope with disasters related to toxic chemicals, biology and collapsed construction works without modern equipment and trained people,” said Mr. Khue.

The general added that the Defense Minister determined coping with disasters as a mission of the army in the peacetime.

Nam Nguyen