BANGKOK, 19 March 2013 The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) is set to further improve its civil defense volunteer program to meet international standards before the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) takes shape in 2015.
DDPM Director-General Chatchai Promlert said on Monday that the department’s civil defense volunteer program was initiated since 1979 as a support team for the country’s disaster prevention and mitigation efforts.
Mr. Chatchai stated that, as Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has expressed an emphasis on the strengthening of the civil defense volunteer program, the DDPM has decided to declare the improvement of the program an important goal, for which the boosting of the number of volunteers to account for no less than 2% of the Thai population is the main task.
Along with that, the DDPM plans to train all volunteers to be more capable in handling specific and large-scale disasters or crises, in an efficient manner.
The DDPM chief added that all volunteers will be trained to become the role models for all similar works across the country and reach international standards before the program gets expanded into regional coordination when the AEC integration is in effect in 2015.
