Experts Thursday called for the introduction of emergency management mechanisms into the sustainable development programmes guiding the national economy and social progress.

Government at all levels should increase efforts to improve laws and regulations to better cope with extraordinary emergencies, said Zhang Chengfu, a top research fellow in this area, at the first China International Forum on Government Emergency Management, which will conclude Friday.

Extraordinary emergencies refers to both natural disasters and those caused by human actions, according to US-based Northern Illinois University professor Donald C. Menzel, such as the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) this spring in China and the terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001.

Statistics indicate that from 1996 to 2000, a variety of disastrous emergencies caused economic losses estimated at 235 billion US dollars, and left 425,000 casualties in their wake around the world.

However, emergencies can also be utilized as an impetus and catalyst to further social progress if the concerned government copes with them rationally and directly, even though such emergencies must always wreak havoc in politics and the economy.

"In the early 1990s, the high-level leadership in China refused to make public any crisis or emergency in the country, and readers had no access to reports on emergencies in the country,'' said Zhang. But the Chinese people's triumph over SARS this year revealed a great improvement in handling and overcoming a serious emergency.

Efficient and effective emergency management requires co-operation among governments, citizens, enterprises and the international community and international organizations.

Human beings ought to reconsider their methods of behaviour, living and development and seek harmonious co-existence between man and nature, in a bid to decrease the damage resulting from disasters and other emergency situations, Zhang said.

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