President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of January 22 with a delegation led by Mr. Alejandro Maldonado Lutomirsky, the president pro tempore of the Central American Centre for Coordination of Disaster Prevention (CEPREDENAC, Coordinacion para la Prevencion de los Desastres Naturales en America Central). In addition to extending a cordial welcome to the group on their visit to Taiwan, President Ma also expressed his desire for even greater cooperation and interaction between the ROC and its Central American allies in the area of disaster prevention.
In remarks, the president stated that Mr. Maldonado previously visited Taiwan in 1999, and that on this trip, he is being accompanied by the heads of governmental disaster agencies from ROC diplomatic allies Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Panama. CEPREDENAC's executive secretary and other officials have also joined the group, and the visitors will exchange opinions with their counterparts in Taiwan on topics such as disaster risk management and post-disaster reconstruction.
President Ma pointed out that Central American nations founded the Central American Integration System (SICA, Sistema de la Integracion Centroamericana) in 1991. Subsequently, the ROC not only became the first official observer from outside the region, but also took part in 16 conferences attended by foreign ministers of the ROC and those countries. In addition, the ROC has undertaken over 100 cooperative projects that help Central American nations strengthen their economies; enhance their farming, fishing, and husbandry industries; and promote health and sanitation, education and culture, environmental protection, and tourism. These endeavors have helped to establish a stable regional cooperation model.
The president noted that Central America and the Caribbean have the highest concentration of ROC diplomatic allies in the world. Those two regions lie at approximately the same latitude as Taiwan, and consequently experience similar kinds of natural disasters such as frequent typhoons, torrential downpours, and earthquakes. Taiwan is presently facing its most serious drought in a decade, showing how widespread the effects of extreme global climate change are.
President Ma also cited the close cooperation between the ROC and SICA in disaster prevention. He noted that the ROC values and supports its Central American allies, and has assisted the region in establishing disaster prevention and reporting systems via the Central American Policy of the Integrated Management of the Risk of Disasters: towards the Reduction of the Impact of Disasters and Its Contribution to Sustainable Development and Security. One example is the creation of an information platform that allows the ROC to share its research and experiences in disaster prevention with countries in the region, a system that has achieved concrete results.
The president recalled that Taiwan experienced a major earthquake on September 21, 1999 and Typhoon Morakot in 2009, both resulting in many casualties. Through lessons learned from those natural disasters, Taiwan has thus accumulated considerable experience in disaster prevention. In the face of threats of natural disasters, Taiwan's disaster prevention and rescue agencies carry out related measures based on the principles of hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst, and deploying troops with an eye to disaster preparedness. Those measures ensure readiness for rescue operations as well as emphasizing disaster preparedness over disaster relief, and evacuation over other preparedness measures. When a natural disaster occurs, the government can evacuate the public from dangerous areas at the earliest juncture, thereby significantly reducing the possibility of calamities.
President Ma told the visitors that the Taiwan public has a much greater awareness of disaster prevention than in the past. Many cities and counties in March of this year will begin staging flood drills, followed by scheduled disaster prevention drills. The objective is to have disaster prevention become part of everyday activities so that when a situation develops, the public will respond quickly and correctly.
The president pointed out that climate change and global warming are urgent challenges currently facing the international community. He stressed that the ROC understands the crucial nature of this topic, and is actively seeking to take part in conferences and activities associated with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). President Ma also expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the ROC's Central American allies for speaking on behalf of the ROC in many international venues, and supporting meaningful ROC participation in international organizations and activities.
Also in the delegation were El Salvador's Presidential Secretary of Vulnerability Affairs Jorge Antonio Melendez Lopez, CEPREDENAC Executive Secretary Roy Barboza Sequeira, Honduran National Commissioner Moises Evenor Alvarado Morales of Permanent Contingency Commission (COPECO, Comision Permanente de Contingencias), and Panama's Director General Jose Donderis of the National Civil Protection System (SINAPROC, Sistema Nacional de Protaccion Civil).