Mr Morch said that to deal effectively with disasters every country needs international support.

At the meeting, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Dao Xuan Hoc praised international support for Vietnam’s disaster relief effort. He expressed his hope that foreign friends will continue to help Vietnam mitigate damages caused by local disasters.

At the meeting delegates discussed their experiences in coping with disasters around in the world. They also proposed new measures, such as establishing coordination mechanisms to allocate international aid to victims, socialising humanitarian relief and coping with disasters on the spot.

According to statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, over the past 10 years, approximately 750 people a year have been killed by disasters with total property losses amounting to 1.5 percent of GDP.