Prince Miteb bin Abdulaziz, the Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs patronized here today the opening ceremony of the Symposium titled "Disaster Management and the Safety of Buildings in the Arab Countries" organized by the ministry in collaboration with the Council of Arab Ministers of Housing and Construction at the Arab League. Upon arrival at the venue, he was received by the undersecretaries of the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs. After that, Prince Miteb bin Abdulaziz delivered the following speech: "We greet you in your second country, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the land of the Two Holy Mosques. We welcome the scientists, experts and researchers from all Arab countries, who meet today at this important scientific forum "Disaster Management and the Safety of Buildings in the Arab Countries", which is considered as the largest global Symposium, to discuss the causes of natural disasters and means to reduce their negative effects on the countries and their people. During the last years, the world has many disasters reported by the media, where we saw the devastating effects of the earthquake in Southeast Asia that caused the emergence of "Tsunami" and the strong sea waves that struck several countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and its impact reached the Indian subcontinent and the coast of East Africa. Also, we have seen Hurricane Katrina in the United States which caused many damages and we have seen the fires in California last summer and Hurricane Jona in Sultanate of Oman. So, the choice of the theme of this Symposium by the Council of Arab Ministers of Housing and Construction was successful one. By this meeting the strategic objectives for all States to provide the means of prevention and reduction of the effects of disasters when they occur will be established. We have directed the ministry employees for more than two years to make every effort to ensure the success of this Symposium, and to facilitate the task of the scientists and specialists with the researchers and scholars to share their experience and exchange their expertise, and to conclude specific recommendations to serve the issues presented at this Symposium. The Kingdom has the honor to host this symposium which hosts more than 700 scientists, intellectuals and researchers who discuss and examine together more than 170 scientific papers in addition to four main lectures and seminars. We hope that this symposium will have positive and long-range outcomes shortly to cope with the consequences of disasters and to serve scholars, researchers and workers in this field". The ceremony was attended by a number of officials.
