Minister Des Van Rooyen held a productive meeting with His Mexican Counterpart in Cancun, Mexico
The Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), honourable Des van Rooyen met with his Mexican counterpart Mr Luis Felipe Puente Espinosa on 22 May 2017 in the margins of the 2017 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction held in Cancun, Mexico.
The purpose of the bilateral meeting between the two principals was to strengthen the existing relations between South Africa and Mexico and to also explore new areas collaboration in the area of disaster management.
The two principals agreed to further explore the following possible areas of collaboration:
a). Scientific Risk assessment and early warning systems
b). Ecosystems based disaster reduction
c). Incident command systems
d). Education training and research on disaster management
The Ministers agreed to formalise the collaboration through the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two countries. The MoU will allow the two countries to explore the possibilities of incorporating other areas of importance like the disaster management issues in the current draft MoU on water issues.
Finally, the two Ministers agreed to urgently initiate this process through diplomatic channels.
Minister van Rooyen will on Thursday, 25 May 2017, deliver the South African statement to the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction held in Cancun.
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