Vietnam urged to safeguard firms from natural disasters

"We have good news that the number of people dying due to disasters is decreasing but we had bad news that the economic losses are going through the roof," said Jerry Velasquez, senior regional co-ordinator of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction at a conference to launch the 2013 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR13) in Ha Noi, as reported by Vietnam.net. He added that a large portion of the losses were in the private sector, both in direct and indirect ways.

The report, Creating Shared Value: the Business Case for Disaster Risk Reduction, found that direct losses from floods, earthquakes and drought have been under-estimated by at least 50 per cent. The report warns the world's business community that economic losses linked to disasters are "out of control" and will continue to escalate unless disaster risk management becomes a core part of business investment strategies.

"The question that we have here is how to help the private sector to protect themselves, help others and promote new business opportunities from disasters," said Velasquez, adding that even climate change could create new business opportunities.