"It provided us with a good opportunity to develop knowledge on disaster management."
Banda Aceh (ANTARA News) - The success of disaster mitigation efforts in Indonesia has been recognised by the international community, according to the director of the Research Centre for Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster Mitigation (TDMRC) in Banda Aceh.

"After successfully dealing with the earthquake and tsunami, Indonesia offers a lot of opportunities for others to learn about disaster management. Experts from many countries have visited Indonesia to study about it," TDMRC Director M. Dirhamsyah stated here on Tuesday.

Dirhamsyah said the recovery and post-disaster reconstruction programmes carried out in Aceh area, which was devastated by the tsunami, were now being adopted by countries such as Pakistan and Haiti.

"It provided us with a good opportunity to develop knowledge on disaster management, because we had a real case and we proved our capability in the field," he added.

According to Dirhamsyah, such opportunities should be utilized as much as possible, because it can also benefit the Acehnese people.

"Once upon a time, we used to learn from Japan`s Hyogo Framework Action, which had set the standard procedures for disaster response, but now people are coming to Indonesia to study about disaster management," he said.

Dirhamsyah also expressed hope that Indonesia would become the global benchmark in disaster mitigation.

"Why is it not possible? We already received the Global Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction award from the United Nations last year," he said.

In 2011, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono received the Global Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction award from the United Nations for Indonesia`s success in natural disaster risk management, thanks to the reliability of the country`s emergency response operations.

At the award ceremony, the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the President was considered successful in the managing the emergency response operations after Aceh was hit by a tsunami in 2004. The operations were later recognized to be of international standards and extremely effective in disaster risk reduction.

It was for the first time ever that The Global Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction award was given to anybody in world.
(T.A050/INE/KR-BSR/S012)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
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