VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) chose Bantul District in Yogyakarta Province to host the ASEAN Disaster Emergency Response Simulation Exercise (ARDEX) on Aug 1-4 since the region has a high risk of earthquake threat.

"In 2023, Yogyakarta Province was chosen to host ARDEX since the region has a high level of risk of earthquake threats," Head of BNPB, Lieutenant General Suharyanto, stated at the opening of the 2023 ARDEX in Yogyakarta on Tuesday.

The agency head said the province had experienced a 6.5-magnitude earthquake centered in Bantul District in 2006 that resulted in 5,578 people being killed and was one of the worst earthquakes in Indonesia.

"From the experience of this incident, Yogyakarta, as a cultural center, certainly has local wisdom in dealing with disasters that we need to introduce to countries in the Southeast Asian region," Suharyanto remarked.

Hence, in line with Bali's agenda for resilience, which is the result of the 7th Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GPDRR) in 2022, Indonesia, as the host of ARDEX 2023, invites Southeast Asian countries to socialize disaster risk reduction based on sustainable development.

"ARDEX is one of the efforts to mitigate disaster risk reduction by involving cross-sectors, cross-systems, across scales and boundaries through emergency simulation exercises in disaster mitigation," he noted.

Moreover, he noted that disasters caused by natural and human factors are one of the non-military threats in the current fifth generation of war. Hence, related parties should consider technology innovation in dealing with disaster threats.

"However, the application of technology must go hand in hand with an understanding of local wisdom and culture. Thus, technology utilization can bring a real impact in the people's daily lives and bring changes in sustainable disaster awareness behavior," Suharyanto remarked.

Hence, the ARDEX activity is expected to help ASEAN countries share and transfer knowledge and technology in the field of disaster and local culture in disaster mitigation, he affirmed.

"I also hope that there will be civil and military cooperation in disaster mitigation in order to build solidarity among ASEAN countries towards (realizing the declaration of) One ASEAN, One Response," he concluded. (Antaranews)