SE Asia floods show businesses unprepared for disasters - UN

According to Reuters AlertNet, flooding across Southeast Asia, which has affected some 8 million people, highlights the need for businesses to step up efforts to reduce disaster risk for their assets and their workers, a senior U.N. official said on Thursday.

Jerry Velasquez, who heads up the Asia-Pacific office of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) based in Bangkok said international disaster reduction efforts have not focused enough on the wider implications of rapid economic development in regions like Southeast Asia.

"We are doing very well when it comes to things like early warning systems – the number of people dying globally in disasters has decreased, and we have been able to save people despite an increase in disasters," he said. "But economic losses are going up because exposure is growing faster than we have been able to protect (economic activity)."