ICDO Executive Council kicks off in Doha

The 51st Executive Council Session of the International Civil Defence Organisation (ICDO) kicked off at Sheraton Doha yesterday.
The three-day meeting, held under the patronage of HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani is being attended by 19 out of the 22 member countries of the Executive Council.
At the opening session, ICDO deputy secretary-general Belkacem Elketroussi, congratulated His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and the Ministry of Interior represented by the General Directorate of Civil Defence for facilitating the meeting in Doha.
Elketroussi said the existing laws of the organisation were framed in 1976, and the current world situation is very different. “Now, the world is in an era of globalisation and technology, which means internal law should be in line with these developments and the organisation should have a forward-looking vision for the next two decades”.
The ICDO official said the development of events and occurrence of disasters such as major forest fires last year in an accelerated manner were beyond the control of some of the affected states. The loss in 2016 from such disasters was estimated at $437bn.
Earlier, ICDO secretary-general Vladimir Kuvshinov said  “We are ready to advance and meet the challenges that we are experiencing. Throughout the world, we have seen various areas of co-operation in the field of civil defence. The increasing disasters that we see and the enormous problems that threaten humanity in the international community highlight the importance of our work.”
He presented the report on the activities of the Organisation at its 50th session. Kuvshinov recalled the General Secretariat, at its previous session had focused on the resolution adopted by the Executive Council at the 51st session, especially, the renewal of the organisation’s 10-year operational programme and the strengthening of bilateral and multilateral relations and the forum’s  activities during the period.
Qatar’s General Directorate of Civil Defence Director General Staff Brigadier Abdullah Mohamed al-Suwaidi said Qatar was among the foremost countries to host such conferences that aimed at international co-operation and humanitarian fields. He said the meeting in co-operation with Member States, hopes to strengthen the organisation further and put it in par with the technological developments across the world.
The senior official added such meetings are a good opportunity to exchange experiences and the meeting of the Executive Council will contribute to the development of the organisation’s works and materialise the hopes of member states.