A delegation of Sri Lanka Preparedness Partnership led by Ms. Chandrika Kularathna visited Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry and interacted with the business community to learn about their experiences to cope with the disaster management activities. The representatives of Sri Lankan Disaster Management Centre, Asian Preparedness Centre, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, Sabaragamuwa Chamber of Commerce & Industry and other organizations were in the delegation.

Addressing the delegation, Faad Waheed, Senior Vice President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry briefed the Sri Lankan delegation about the contributions of the business community to reduce the risks of disasters. He said that the business community has always been at the forefront in collaboration with disaster management authorities of the government to provide relief to the people and businesses in disaster-hit areas. He said that the business community made useful contributions to mitigate the miseries of affected people and businesses during major disasters in Pakistan including Covid-19, 2005 earthquake, floods of 2010 and 2022. He also briefed them about the initiatives of industries to make their production activities environment-friendly in order to reduce the risks of climate-induced disasters. He said that ICCI has arranged ambulance service to facilitate members in case of disasters and other tragedies. He stressed that the private sectors of Pakistan and Sri Lanka should develop close cooperation to learn from each other and develop new disaster-resilient strategies.

Brig. (Retd) Sajid Naeem of Pakistan Resilience Partnership (PRP) said that Pakistan has established strong public-private partnerships and platforms to ignite the momentum for building business resilience. He said that the objective of PRP is to enhance the partnerships, and coordination among government, local humanitarian & civil society organizations, private sector, media and academia to contribute towards strengthening the disaster preparedness and emergency response capacity at national and local levels.

Ms. Chandrika Kularathna Head and other members of Sri Lankan delegation said that the key objective of their visit to Pakistan is to interact with SMEs and learn about their preparedness for continuity of businesses post-disasters. They showed keen interest in learning about the disaster management systems in Pakistan so that they could take advantage of them to reduce risks of disasters in their home country.

Rizwana Asif President Islamabad Women Chamber of Commerce, Malik Sohail Hussain former Senior Vice President ICCI and Sana Zulfiqar of PRP also spoke at the occasion and highlighted the role of the private sector in reducing the risks of disasters in the country through various initiatives.