President Ma Ying-jeou has offered to share Taiwan’s experience in disaster prevention with the countries of Central America. Ma was speaking Thursday during a meeting with Executive Secretary of the Coordination Center for the Prevention of Natural Disasters in Central America, Alejandro Maldonado Lutomirsky.
Ma said that Taiwan lies at roughly the same latitude as Central America and experiences the same types of natural disasters. Ma said that Taiwan has been hit by major typhoons twice in recent decades, once in 1999 and once in 2009. He said that Taiwan has learned a great deal about how to minimize damage from natural disasters through adequate preparation.
Ma also told Lutomirsky that all of Taiwan’s city and county governments will be holding flood drills in March in order to help maintain preparedness. He said that this way, local governments will be prepared when disaster strikes.
Ma said that his term as mayor of Taipei saw typhoons, earthquakes, floods, droughts, and SARS. He said that Taiwan hopes to strengthen cooperation in the area of disaster prevention with the countries of Central America.