Officials in the Yangtze River Delta are rolling out a raft of improvements to emergency response in the region across a range of areas including aviation and chemical emergencies, and natural disasters.

The region has carried out joint studies on emergency response plans for major emergencies in the Yangtze River Delta and identified 20 aviation emergency rescue demonstration teams, Ma Jianhong, head of the Shanghai Emergency Management Bureau, said last week.

Ma noted a special emergency cooperation team for the Yangtze River Delta region was established in 2020.

A regional emergency management platform has been set up to share information and coordinate production security, disaster prevention and reduction, and emergency rescue.

"The platform has allowed us to effectively respond to natural disasters and conduct real-time monitoring of the storage and transportation of hazardous chemical products. These digital technologies have helped us boost the quality and efficiency of emergency management work," said Ye Jianxun, deputy head of the Zhejiang emergency management department.

Last year, an agreement on preventing and controlling accidents involving dangerous cargo transported by road in the Yangtze River Delta region was signed, according to which Shanghai and the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui agreed to resolve any safety issues.

"Jiangsu province has launched the second phase of a dangerous chemical products' emergency response base, and a technical support base for the prevention and control of major hazardous chemical accidents in Shanghai has been basically completed," Ma said.

The first Yangtze River Delta chemical disaster medical emergency drill was staged on March 30, attended by related organizations from Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui. The activity was backed by coordination and information sharing across the Yangtze River Delta region, Yu Tao, deputy director of the Shanghai Health Commission and commander-in-chief of the drill, was quoted as saying by China News Service.

A large number of chemical industrial parks and chemical corporations are situated across the Yangtze River Delta region. Among them, there are more than 5,000 organizations engaged in the production, operation, utilization, storage, transportation and disposal of hazardous chemicals in Shanghai alone. More than 10,000 kinds of dangerous chemical products with a volume of some 45 million metric tons enter Shanghai through various means annually, according to experts who took part in the recent drill.

The second Yangtze River Delta International Emergency Disaster Reduction and Rescue Expo will be held from May 8 to 10 at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai.

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