Vietnam takes the lead in ASEAN for storm forecasts: Minister

According to the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Nguyen Minh Quang, the quality of forecasting dangerous meteorological phenomena of Vietnam is equal to that of the Philippines and better than other countries in Southeast Asia.

Reporting to the National Assembly on answering questions of voters at the previous NA session, Quang emphasized the content of meteorological forecasts. 

The television tower in Nam Dinh collapsed due to storm Son Tinh.

At the 4th session in November 2012, Quang received many questions about the quality of storm forecasts after meteorological forecast reports could not determine the direction of the storm Son Tinh, resulted in heavy losses. During the storm, the TV tower worth more than VND50 billion ($2.5 million) in Nam Dinh collapsed.

Mentioning the development strategy of hydrometeorology to 2020, Minister Quang said that the objective of the meteorological sector of Vietnam is to reach the advanced level of Asia, to be capable of making basic survey, meteorological forecasts to meet the requirements for prevention and mitigation of natural disasters, to serve economic - social development... The scheme to modernize the weather forecast technology and meteorological observation network in 2010 - 2012 was also approved by the Government.

Minister Quang said in the context of economic difficulties, capital investment is limited; the project was just finished by about 30 percent.

However, he confirmed: "Compared with other countries in Southeast Asia, Vietnam’s weather forecast technology is behind Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and higher than Thailand and the Philippines. The quality of prediction of dangerous meteorological phenomena of Vietnam is equivalent to the Philippines – the country that is most affected by storms in Southeast Asia, better than the rest, but still poorer than the United States, Japan, China ..."

According to Quang, in the future, the meteorological sector will continue to improve weather forecasting quality, better respond to disaster prevention.

VNN

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