Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha will travel to Japan to share Thailand's tsunami and flooding experiences at the national disaster risk reduction (DRR) conference this weekend.
Accompanied by Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda and Public Health Minister Rajata Rajatanavin, Gen Prayut will attend the Third United Nations World Conference on DRR organised in Sendai on Friday and Saturday.
Strategies to manage disasters have been brought to the international table repeatedly in recent years. However, this year's conference hopes to come up with a 20-year vision to address natural hazards.
Gen Prayut will present the lessons which Thailand learned from coping with the 2004 tsunami and 2011 floods.
The government encouraged the public and private sectors to assist victims, he said, adding he hopes the experience will be useful for the countries present.
The government will also highlight its initiative for a fund to invest in the DRR, lowering the social and economic costs borne by disasters. Under the government's plan, the private sector would help bear the cost of contributions to the fund.
Thailand also will sift through the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) to discuss how to boost cooperation between state ministries, international agencies and disaster experts as a means to save more lives and curtail calamity-induced social, economic and environmental losses, he said. "Disaster management must vary from country to country because there are different risks and people have different lifestyles," Gen Prayut said.
"During the major floods in Thailand in 2011, people were adamant they would not leave their homes because they were worried about their belongings and valuables," he said. Rescue workers and the state had to take this factor into account in their responses.
Gen Prayut will also meet his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the conference.