President of the Republic Of Palau, His Excellency Johnson Toribiong, National Authorising Officer, Darren Fritz, Distinguished Guests, Ladies & Gentlemen
On behalf of the Director-General of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Dr. Jimmie, Rodgers, I extend a warm welcome to all who are here to witness this occasion. This unveiling ceremony of a plaque to recognise the key stakeholders in the establishment of this National Emergency Operations Centre in Palau. The key stakeholders namely the Government and people of Palau as beneficiaries, the European Union as the development partner, and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (more commonly referred to as the SPC) as your facilitating regional organisation.
Mr President, It gives me great pleasure to be here today to participate in this important ceremony. I am accompanied by Mr Amena Yauvoli the Manager of the SPC North Pacific Regional Office, he of course is well known to many of you.
I have had the privilege over many years to 2005 to work with Palau in my capacity as Deputy Director of SOPAC, then the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission. In March 2007, I was here as a consultant for SOPAC, and my mission was to work with the Office of the Vice President and staff of the National Emergency Management Office (NEMO), to develop the implementation plan for a Project which included the construction of a National Emergency Operations Centre. In my capacity here today as the Director of SOPAC, now the Applied Geoscience and Technology Division of the SPC, it gives me a unique pleasure to be able witness the completion of this building.
I would here like to acknowledge Alonzo Kyoto your Director of NEMO a good friend and colleague of many years who over the past 5 years has committed himself to this Project. Some of you may be aware that the initial plan was to build the Emergency Operation Centre at the national hospital complex, which was to include a jetty to receive patients in case the causeway linking the hospital to the main island became inoperable. The hospital however had expansion plans and after considering several alternate sites the decision was made to construct the Centre here adjacent to the airport.
Strategically, this current site is important as it is near the Fire Authority, one of the first responders in an emergency, and the Weather Office, who NEMO communicates with on a daily basis for monitoring weather patterns. Logistically, coordination of relief supplies during a hazard event should become an easier task due to proximity to the airport.
I understand two emergencies have already been coordinated through the new Centre, namely the response to the fire in the powerhouse and the launch of the national NCD awareness campaign.
The support being provided to Palau through this EU B Envelope Project is but one example of the support that your country has been able to benefit from in the past 2 – 3 years. Support was provided to Palau under the EDF 9 Project which identified the review of the 1999 National Disaster Plan as a priority. The review of the Plan which was completed in 2009 has resulted in the development of the 2010 National Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Framework for Palau. This document lays out your updated DRM governance arrangements and SOPAC/SPC will continue to support your efforts in implementing priorities under the new Framework.
In this connection I am pleased to inform you that SPC/SOPAC anticipates extending further DRM support in the near future through a collaborative effort with some of our partner organisations in terms of the development and implementation of a Joint National Action Plan for Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA). This new plan or JNAP as it is now commonly referred to across the region will be a very useful mechanism for Palau to use to guide future investments in DRM and CCA. An example of potential investment is through the EDF10 ACP-EU Natural Disaster Facility which we will work closely with NEMO and other local and overseas partners to undertake programming for hopefully implementation to commence before the end of 2012.
Mr President, may I take this opportunity to commend Palau for seizing the initiative of this Project to enable the construction of this Centre with funds totalling some 600,000 Euros that remained in your EDF9 National Indicative Programme "B Envelope". These funds would have been lost, had not Palau agreed to have them included in this Project along with seven other countries, and the Project implemented from a regional level by SOPAC.
Mr President, if I may say so this is a very innovative approach to gaining access to capacity building and capacity supplementation available from your regional organisation now SPC/SOPAC, as compared to the traditional approach of seeking to support membership contribution increases. Membership contributions should remain an expression of ownership, whilst a funding mechanism such as you have supported for this Project is a smart way of doing business differently.
I am aware that the official opening of the building took place in September last year, when the then EU Head of Delegation for the Pacific, Ambassador Wiepke Van Der Goot, paid his farewell visit to Palau. I must express our gratitude to the European Union for funding this important Project. It is good to see that the building is now fully completed, and operational, and it is only fitting that we mark this occasion with the unveiling of the plaque.
The building looks rather impressive and I would like to go on record to thank Coffell Construction for a job well done.
SOPAC/SPC’s Disaster Reduction Programme will be here towards the end of next month to undertake some training in the area of disaster management. There are still funds remaining in the Project, and I hope Palau will focus on utilising them to strengthen its early warning communications, particularly linking this new building to remote communities and the outer islands.
Mr President and representatives of many parts of the Palau community here today, may I close by wishing you well with this new National Emergency Operations Centre. I sincerely hope that it, and the people working in it, are able to serve you well on the occasions when it inevitably will be needed.
Thank You.
