On day 9 of the APEC Senior Officials’ Meeting and related events, the plenary meeting of the APEC’s Emergency Preparedness Working Group (EPWG) was held.

The plenary meeting of EPWG was held having as participants: General Juan Carlos Urcariegui Reyes, the head of INDECI (National Institute for the Defense of Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property, its acronym in Spanish), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the APEC economies.

The meeting was very productive and allowed the delegates to reflect and exchange information on relevant topics for dealing with natural disasters in a cooperative manner.

Topics discussed included community flexibility and adaptability, mitigation and prevention, community capacity building for prevention, response and recovery, and the use of relevant technologies such as Early Warning Systems and satellite technology.

The delegates also started exploring ways to incorporate criteria such as the gender approach and the generation of disaggregated data for prevention and recovery policies in the face of natural disasters.