Greetings, I wish to acknowledge the presence of everyone here, distinguished representatives from SPC’s Pacific Islands Emergency Management Agency (PIEMA) team, Director National Disaster Management Office, Mr Luka Selu and all of us who are here today, from NGOs, civil societies and other senior officials.
I would like to welcome you all to this training. I would like to thank you all for being here. This is a five-day training programme organised by PIEMA through SPC in collaboration with our National Disaster Management Office.
I would also like to acknowledge the presence of those who came in through Fiji Ms Kathryn Burke, Mr Mitieli Koroiwaqa and Ms Alisi Waibuta. Welcome to Tuvalu.
This training is the first technical engagement for the orientation programme, and it also represents a significant step forward in our national efforts to ensure that we enhance our disaster preparedness, coordination and response.
As we are all aware, that Tuvalu is very prone to natural disasters therefore this workshop is very important in terms of enhancing our capacity to be able to see areas where we can improve in terms of preparedness.
I understand there are two trainings; one is on Pacific Incident Management System (PacIMS), and the other is on Emergency Operations Centre (EOC). I am sure everyone is looking forward to participating in this training and it is also great to see that we have representatives from Government, we also have Civil Society here. Without further a due, I would like to declare this training open.
