Ceremony to release Post-Nargis Joint Assessment Report held

YANGON,21 July—Under the supervision of Tripartite Core Group (TCG)of (ASEANGovernment of Myanmarthe United Nations), a ceremony to pass the release of Post-Nargis Joint Assessment Report on the needs for postcyclone relief and reconstruction was held at Park Royal Hotel, here this evening.
Present on the occasion were Chairman of TCG Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs U Kyaw Thu, members of TCG, officials of working groups under TCG, Foreign Ambassadors to Myanmar, foreign diplomats, the Resident Representative of UNDP, the United Nations Resident Coordinator, Representatives of NGO and INGOs, heads of departments and guests.
First, Deputy Minister U Kyaw Thu, Ambassador of Singapore and Senior ASEAN Member of TCG Mr Robert Chua Hian Kong, United Nations Resident Coordinator and Member of the TCG Mr Bishow Parajuli and Mr Nikolas Win Myint of United Nations Resident Representative Office and UNHCR Coordinator Office made clarifications
on efforts made for releasing PONJA-Report. Next, the Deputy Minister and officials replied to the queries raised by those present. The similar ceremony to release PONJA-Report was held simultaneously in Singapore at 6 pm Singapore Local Time during the 41st ASEAN Ministerial Meeting.
Over 250 personnel from Government of Myanmar, United Nations and NGOs participated in the Orientation and Training Programme to be able to compile and distribute the report on 2 and 3 June 2008. Next, the PONJA teams collected data on the damages and losses of 30 cyclone affected townships of Yangon and Ayeyawady Divisions from 10 to 19 June. Depending upon assessed collection of data, experts from the Union of Myanmar, the United Nations and ASEAN compiled the present report.
After the ceremony, copies of PONJA Report were distributed to ministries concerned, embassies based in Yangon, the UN organizations and related agencies and other NGO and INGOs.