****************************************************
As a major financial, trading and transportation hub in the Asia Pacific region, Hong Kong is committed to providing first-rate emergency services for the protection of lives and property, the Secretary for Security, Mr Ambrose S K Lee, said today (February 9).
Mr Lee made the remarks when he was addressing the ˇ§Fire Asia 2009" International Conference and Exhibition that opened in Hong Kong today.
Referring to the conferenceˇ¦s theme of ˇ§Rising to New Challengesˇ¨, Mr Lee said, ˇ§Every day, people around the world are threatened by natural disasters and man-made calamities. The age-old aim is to survive, but the ever-growing challenge is how we can do it better, and how we can be better prepared,ˇ¨ he said.
Mr Lee said that as cities were growing larger with increasingly complex buildings and infrastructure, it was of paramount importance that the new risks they brought about were understood and appropriate strategies were designed in mitigating them.
As to how Hong Kong could maintain a first-rate emergency service to cope with these situations, Mr Lee said, ˇ§We attach great importance to the training of our emergency response units and we invest heavily in the procurement of the necessary equipment.
ˇ§To enhance building safety, we have updated the legislative requirements on fire safety of old buildings to modern standards, and are assisting the owners in carrying out the necessary improvement works.
ˇ§We are also looking for new ways to best use our ambulance resources to improve the response time for critical cases.ˇ¨
Mr Lee also pledged that Hong Kong would continue its efforts to update emergency management systems and adopt the best practices in life safety.
The three-day conference has attracted more than 30 renowned experts from overseas, Mainland China and Taiwan to speak on various subjects in the field of fire engineering research, ambulance services, disaster management, risk assessment and international fire safety standards.
Ends/Monday, February 9, 2009
Issued at HKT 12:50
NNNN