Myanmar Private Disaster Preparedness Network (MPD network) organized the business resilience forum in Yangon to promote knowledge on disaster preparedness and business resilience initiatives

Private sector in Myanmar strengthens their efforts for promotion of knowledge in disaster preparedness and business resilience initiatives.

The Myanmar Private Disaster Preparedness Network (MPD network) held the business resilience forum in Yangon on Wednesday.

The forum explored an effective ways to engage private sector in disaster preparedness and business resilience initiatives in the country. 

Capacity Development Specialist, Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, Myat Thar said “In Myanmar, many of the businesses didn’t have much preparation for the disasters, most of them faced it and effected by it once it hit. During Nargis in 2008, damages and losses for the business sector estimated about 4 Billion US$. And in 2015 flooding, the business sector also losses over 119 million US$. So in today’s forum, we are aiming to share the knowledge on business resilience initiatives, good practices and will discuss possible challenges and effective ways to solve it.”

In Myanmar, there are over 400 occurrences of disasters across the country in 2014-2015 fiscal Year. Not only over 1.7 million people are affected by the flooding and landslides in 2015, business sectors also faced many losses, the experts said.

Chairman of the MPD-Network call for cooperation to be prepared ahead.

Chairman, MPD-Network, Thet Win said "... You cannot say that disaster will only damage the people, disaster also damage the business... So when the business will damage by disaster, it is very important for the business to grow up again when they hit.... We are in the embroil stage... If we look back the nargis, we are not prepared. That is why it hit a lot. There are a lot of lives are lost. So that is why we are making this forum to be prepared....”

 Industry experts welcomed the actions and share their preparations to improve the knowledge sharing on weather forecast in Myanmar.

Deputy Project Manager, NIRAS, Chit Kyaw said “Together with Norway, we are now preparing to announce weather forecast for specific townships. For that, we need at least 450 stations, and we’re already opened 60 stations and more 90 stations will open within this year. Once we complete the projects, the quality and accuracy of the weather forecast will be much higher.”

Although business resilience initiatives are new for the industry, the experts plan to address the challenges and good practices through this forum. The similar forum of this kind will be held across regions and states within this year, the officials from ADPC said.

(Myanmar International TV Channel: http://www.myanmarinternationaltv.com/news/disaster-preparedness-seeking-ways-business-resilience-initiatives )

​