ULAN BATOR, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Over 3,000 officials and experts from more than 50 countries in the Asia-Pacific region will gather in Mongolia's capital to discuss ways to reduce disaster risks and share experiences, Mongolia's National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said Monday.
The second Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction will be held from July 3-6 on the theme "Preventing Disaster Risk: Protecting Sustainable Development."
Co-organized with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, the conference aims to intensify efforts in the region to reduce and prevent disaster losses through implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, a strategy adopted in 2015 to prevent new disaster risks and reduce existing ones.
According to NEMA, in 2017 alone, more than 6,500 people lost their lives following over 200 disasters that affected 66.7 million people.
The Asia-Pacific region has suffered economic losses of nearly 1.3 trillion U.S. dollars due to disasters over the last 50 years. Losses in the region could exceed 160 billion dollars annually by 2030.