Mr chen mingquan congress paper

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Achieve a Safe & Happy Life by building a Resilient City Mr. Chen Mingquan Vice Secrectary General of Wuhan Political Consultative Committee, Hubei Province, P.R.China 2012.10.02, Jakarta Dear friends, ladies & gentlemen, Good Afternoon.

I come from Wuhan, China. Later I will give a few words of my city.

First of all, I’d like to express our sincere appreciation to Jakarta municipality for hosting the grand event of UCLG ASPEC 4TH Congress. It is a great honor and a great pleasure for me as well to have the opportunity today to give a speech here in Jakarta on the topic of resilient cities.

We’ve got to know the definition of resilience highlights the capacity or the ability of a city to absorb shocks and stresses, survive and retain vitality in front of disturbance.

It is the fact that cities grow more and more civilized, but seems weaker than before in recovery from both natural disaster and man-made shocks and stress. Facing all kinds of risks increasingly in this time, how to enhance the resilience of a city and how to build such a city has been a common challenge of top concern around the world.

With a population over 10 million people, Wuhan is a megalopolis in central China. It is the capital city of Hubei Province, abundant in water resources with hundreds of lakes and a big river. Yangtze River, the world’s third longest river and its largest tributary Han River meet in Wuhan. Wuhan is situated at the confluence of the Yangtze River and the Han River and the two big rivers cut the city into three parts of Hankou, Hanyang and Wuchang, namely Three Towns of Wuhan which are standing like the three feet of a tripod by the two rivers. It has been renowned as a cultural city with a long-standing history dating back to 3500 years ago.

Next, I’d like to give a brief introduction of the methods adopted by our city on

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resilience-building and our thinking for the future.

Since the beginning of this century, Wuhan Municipality put resilient construction of the city with public safety as a key on top agenda. We paid efforts and got good results. â… Basic methods of building a resilient city A

Organizations in charge of public safety administration grow increasingly

strong The city government set up an emergency committee exclusively in charge of unexpected public events, and over 10 such committees of special sectors of construction, transportation, public safety, water affairs, higene, agriculture, earthquake, environmental protection, safe production monitoring, grain, food safety and medicine safety etc. Emergency committees are also established in district level, in charge of ordinary incidents. In general, an organization system of emergency management takes shape with 3 levels of municipality, special sector authorities, and district government, and It works under the principal of unified leadership, comprehensive coordination, hierarchical responsibility, and priority of localized management.

B

Exposure rating and early warning system under construction step by step

The city government pays great attention to the construction of basic emergency data base, and communication information system of emergency commanding. In the year of 2008, the municipality launched Trial Regulation of Methods on Precaution of Emergency Events and Information Release & Dissemination, established unified platform of information release for early natural disaster, and has released meteorological disaster information in time to citizens.

Especially, five fundamental data base of rules and regulations, precaution plan, experts, teams and materials supply for early warning have been established.

And since the beginning of 2009, exposure rating system of social stability was established for heavy accidents.

C

Formulation of emergency preplan more standardized, and exercise regularized

Emergency preplan system was established with integrated structure, all functions, rapid reaction and high efficiency, which is most important for early warning. Fifteen

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specialized preplan has been worked out involving production accidents, road traffic accidents, public health accidents, food safety and medicine safety etc., with over 500 sub-preplan. Therefore overall preplan system has taken shape.

On the other hand, regularized exercise raised the capability of people and different departments, and made those preplans increasingly perfect.

D

Collection and release of information of public safety administration sound and

effective Networks and teams of public safety information are enhanced, as well as information collection, disposal and analysis, early warning, report and dissemination, cooperation with news media. By real-time press briefing, rumors clarified and stopped, panic eliminated.

E

Construction of refuge for public safety has achieved a good result

Refuge construction is the most important method to guarantee life safety of citizens at crisis. It is the top concern of the municipality. By far, there are 386 refuges for emergency use in the whole city, 37 of which are municipal level, 349 are district level. 7 municipal level over ground cover an area of 600,000 sq. meters, which can accommodate 436.000 people at the same time, more than 30 underground mainly for air attack. â…Ą Meditation on resilient construction of the city of Wuhan for the next step In the process of rapid urbanization, enlargement of the size of city, problems and shortages also emerge in terms of resilience. For the future improvement, we would like to pay more efforts as below: A

Enhance the education and training in terms of public safety

Awareness of public safety crisis is of great help in reducing occurrence of possible crisis, as well as reducing the loss and disorder generated by crisis or emergency.

Later in the future, education of such subject will be taken into schools. Promotion, skill training and exercise will be strengthened among citizens to improve their ability for anti-crisis.

B

Enhance the planning and assessment of urban public safety

Construction of early warning and monitoring system is priority in prevention and

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elimination of risk and crisis. Analysis and study of risk is necessary for a city, by which we should make reasonable special planning and timing of human activities.

The support of science of high technology should be largely used in the research and study in this sector, such as remote sensing, topography, geographical exploration, meteorological study, etc.

Then the forecast of all information of possible crisis and emergency can offer conductive reference for both the citizens and the government.

C

Reinforce the construction of emergency administration system

Prevention is more important than treatment. Preplan plays a role of planning and guiding in anti-crisis, turning people from unprepared to fully prepared. So the preplan system should be more feasible and easily operated, and promoted to community level, to rural area, to all kinds of organizations and units of a city. With regards to improving the precaution, we can try to establish anti-crisis fund, insurance of responsibility and super-serious disaster, and promote charity development, to form strong financial support backup. In terms of material preparation, reserve of all kinds of material, communication equipments, life utensils should be adequate. Meanwhile, special teams should be trained effectively and constantly to raise the ability of cooperation.

D Intensify the information sharing system, improving sound communication among government, news media and citizens We have embraced a time of information. The government should guide the medias to interfere in emergency events under the principal of “just, fair and open�. Social power should be motivated in crisis treatment. Meanwhile, monitoring of news release should be paid high attention. Especially we should be prudent in the release of information regarding public safety. In addition, the government should enhance exchange and cooperation with citizens, especially NGOs, give them a full play in anti-crisis.

In general, on the occasion of crisis, the government should make people more confident, and the people should give more faith to the government, news media should play a good bridge between the two. If so, a sound communication will be generated among the three parties to achieve a good treatment of crisis and a rapid recovery from crisis.

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Last but not least, I’d like to take this opportunity to invite you to visit our city and exchange with us in this sector and others as well, to know each other, to understand each other, to learn from each other, and to find chances of cooperation.

That’s all for my speech today. Thank you for your patience.