(Iran's Environment News Agency) - Irans Head of the Plan and Budget Organization Mohammad-Baqer Nobakht and UN under Secretary General Shamshad Akhtar signed a MoU on establishing Asian and Pacific Centre for the Development of Disaster Information Management (APDIM) office in Tehran.

Iran's Head of the Plan and Budget Organization Mohammad-Baqer Nobakht and UN under Secretary General Shamshad Akhtar signed a MoU on establishing Asian and Pacific Centre for the Development of Disaster Information Management (APDIM) office in Tehran.

APDIM which is a center affiliated with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) was proposed by Iran.

The center aims to provide ESCAP member states with information on disasters especially earthquake.

From among 40 main natural disasters in the world, 30 occurred in Iran and the most important and most frequent one is earthquake that has left casualties and damages.

Akhtar in is Tehran to take part in the second Session of Governing Council of Asian and Pacific Centre for the Development of Disaster Information Management (APDIM) started work in Tehran on Tuesday.

Some 40 representatives of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) are participating in the event. They are supposed to discuss natural disasters like earthquake, dust, and flood and the ways to manage them.

Iran ready to share natural disasters experiences with Asian states

Iranian vice-president expressed the country's readiness to share experiences in natural disasters with the Asian and regional countries.

Asia and Pacific is the world's most dangerous region in terms of natural calamity, Mohammad-Baqer Nobakht said at the opening ceremony of the second session of the Governing Council of Asian and Pacific Centre for the Development of Disaster Information Management (APDIM) underway in the Iranian capital with participation of the member countries and the UN official, IRNA reported.

Nobakht, who is also head of Plan and Budget Organization, said Iran has given $3.3 million to help establish APDIM. In 2011, it was approved to set up APDIM's headquarters in Tehran.

The second APDIM meeting is to focus on ways to counter and deal with the natural disasters including earthquake, floods and dust storms.

The first session of APDIM Governing Council was held in the Indian capital of New Delhi in November 2016.

The meeting was inaugurated with the attendance of Iran's Head of the Plan and Budget Organization Mohammad-Baqer Nobakht and UN under Secretary General Shamshad Akhtar, IRNA reported.

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) is the regional development arm of the United Nations for the Asia-Pacific region. Made up of 53 Member States and nine Associate Members, with a geographical scope that stretches from Turkey in the west to the Pacific island nation of Kiribati in the east, and from the Russian Federation in the north to New Zealand in the south, the region is home to 4.1 billion people, or two thirds of the world’s population.

This makes ESCAP the most comprehensive of the United Nations five regional commissions, and the largest United Nations body serving the Asia-Pacific region with over 600 staff.
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