Department of Sports, Taipei City Government

On November 14^th and 15^th, Chief Secretary of Taipei City Fire Department, Hsu Chih-Min represented Taipei City and attended the “Crisis Management Conference 2019” held in Manila, Philippines. Taipei City shared its city strengthening efforts with various member cities from Network for Crisis Management. Through unanimous decision of the participating cities, Taipei City will host 2020 Crisis Management Conference.
 
To deal with of upcoming challenges in economy, travel, and cultural exchange, major Asian cities gathered as a Network of Asian capital and major Cities. In 2001, Tokyo invited 12 major cities in Asia, including Taipei, Bangkok, Beijing, Delhi, Hanoi, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Seoul, Singapore and Yangon, to create “Asian Network of Major Cities 21, ANMC21”. 19 inter-city joint projects was formed. The Network for Crisis Management was one of the cooperative projects. In order to strengthen the relations, member cities host the “Crisis Management Conference, CMC” by turns every year since 2003.
 
To promote the concept of “Disaster Beyond Borders”, in 2015, major cities in non-Asian regions were opened to participate, and London was invited to join. It was officially renamed as “Network for Crisis Management”. Currently, there are 13 countries and 14 member cities in the Network for Crisis Management. As one of the founding member cities, Taipei City conducts disaster information sharing, International Urban Search and Rescue and comprehensive disaster prevention training through the Network, and send staff to attend crisis management conferences for disaster relief exchanges.
 
The Crisis Management Conference 2019 was hosted by Mr. Danulo Delapuz Lim of the Metropolitan Development Committee of Manila, Philippines, and gave a speech of welcome. The event had 9 participating cities including: Jakarta(Indonesia), Kuala Lumpur(Malaysia), Seoul(Korea), Singapore, Ulaanbaatar(Mongolia), Tokyo(Japan), Manila(Philippines), Taipei, and New Taipei City. The theme of the conference was “International Bayanihan – Unity in the Face of Disasters”, including “The Strength of Public-Private Partnerships”, “The Role of the Local Government in Disaster Management”, “The Efforts of the National Government towards Disaster Resilience”, and “The Importance of the Network for Crisis Management and other Internationl Partnerships” as the sub-themes. Taipei City, using “Enhancing the Disaster Resilience of Taipei City” as the theme, shared efforts and achievements of Taipei City in disaster management in recent years.
 
In the joint witness of the member cities, Taipei City received the honorary key of the 2020 conference from the representative of Manila, Philippines. During the key handover, Chief Secretary Hsu sincerely invited all member cities to participate in the 2020 crisis management meeting and said that Taipei City will do its utmost to plan and prepare all the preparatory work, which would strengthen the relationship between cities, thus improving the efficiency of urban disaster prevention and cooperation.
 
Image 1: In the joint witness of the member cities, Taipei City received the hosting rights for the 2020 Crisis Management Conference. In the middle of the photo is Chief Secretary Hsu Chih-Min. (Photo courtesy of the Taipei City Fire Department)
 
Image 2: Taipei City Government was invited to attend the 2019 Crisis Management Conference. Third person from the left in the photo is Chief Secretary Hsu Chih-Min. (Photo courtesy of the Taipei City Fire Department)