S'pore can learn from crisis response in Australia, Japan

SINGAPORE - The Republic can learn from the way people in Japan and Australia responded during crises, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean said yesterday.

He noted that the way the communities helped each other, and their determination to rebuild their lives, serve as an inspiration for Singaporeans.

Mr Teo said: "If you look at what's happened in Japan during the crisis, the way they've come together to help each other is really quite tremendous. It shows the strength of the community spirit, and this has to be built up over a period of time."

Mr Teo was speaking at the launch - held in Serangoon - of a nation-wide emergency preparedness programme specially for private estates.

In the next five years, some 55,000 households in private estates - or about 20 per cent of all private households units in the country - are expected to be put through the programme, which is coordinated by the People's Association (PA).

Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Lim Hwee Hua, who is also the adviser to Serangoon grassroots organisations, said: "The whole idea is to get people to think beyond themselves... we all run very busy lives these days, so unless we all put in an effort to know each other and to see that there can be larger interests to be served, it's going to always be a challenge."

The PA aims to equip one in every three households in Singapore, including those in HDB estates, with emergency skills by 2015.

ORIGINAL SOURCE