The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Japan’s Maritime Disaster Prevention Center on toxic chemical disaster response.
The pact would help promote exchanges in ground and sea rescue expertise, bolster toxic chemical disaster response capabilities and make both sides better at handling chemical accidents, said Hsieh Yein-rui (謝燕儒), head of the Environmental Protection Administration’s Toxic and Chemical Substances Bureau.
The MOU would also help raise public awareness on crisis preparation, which would mitigate the effects of a disaster, Hsieh said during the signing ceremony at the ITRI’s headquarters in Hsinchu County.
The ITRI, Taiwan’s top industrial research institute, set up the nation’s first Emergency Response Information Center in 1996 to deal with toxic chemical disasters.
The institute has reached out to the Japanese center to work together in the area of international disaster response, said Robert Hu (胡耀祖), head of the ITRI’s Green Energy and Environment Research Laboratories, at the ceremony.
With the bureau’s support, Hu hopes the ITRI and the center can work together to build an international disaster response platform, which he said can improve various industries’ disaster response and protection capabilities.
The center, headquartered in Yokohama, was established in 1976 as a private-sector initiative. It became an independent administrative agency in 2003 and the Japanese government in 2013 designated it as the country’s only authorized maritime disaster prevention institute.
Center chairman Iwao Masayuki said he hopes the MOU will integrate the experience of the two nations in toxic chemical disaster prevention, control and response, and facilitate the establishment of a platform for mutual exchanges of information.
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