GENEVA, May 14 — Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail has arrived here for a three-day working visit to lead the Malaysian delegation to the sixth edition of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GPDRR) from today until May 16.
Dr Wan Azizah, who opted to fly on a commercial airline, landed at the Geneva International Airport at 1.35pm local time (7.35pm Malaysian time) and was met by Malaysia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) in Geneva, Datuk Amran Mohamed Zin, and his wife Datin Razana Mat.
On her first official visit to Switzerland after being appointed deputy prime minister on May 12 last year, Dr Wan Azizah is scheduled to give a keynote address at two main sessions of the conference at the International Conference Centre Geneva (CICG) tomorrow.
GPDRR is a biennial event coordinated by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and is the most important international forum for strategic partnership, coordination, partnership development and review of the implementation of disaster risk management instruments.
More than 4,000 delegates from 193 UN member states assembled here Monday to attend the conference, themed ‘Resilience Dividend: Towards Sustainable and Inclusive Societies.’
The Malaysian delegation includes officials from the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) and the Mineral and Geoscience Department.
Dr Wan Azizah’s tight schedule begins today, where she will receive a courtesy call from International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) deputy secretary-general Tan Sri Dr Jemilah Mahmood before attending an iftar and a dialogue with the Malaysian community in Switzerland.
In the next two days, the deputy prime minister will hold a bilateral meeting with Indonesian Vice-President Mohamed Jusuf Kalla as well as meeting with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi.
Dr Wan Azizah will also hold a meeting with the special representative of the UN secretary-general for disaster risk reduction, Mami Mizutori, as well as visiting the Geneva Islamic Cultural Foundation to meet its leaders.
She will be leaving for Malaysia on Thursday evening after attending the ministerial-level round-table session. — Bernama
