Singapore is setting up a new regional disaster relief centre that will facilitate the coordination among military responders in Asia serving as an information clearing house. This was reported by the website Channel News Asia. The Changi Regional Humanitarian and Disaster Relief Coordination Centre (RHCC) will be operational round-the-clock from next year. In the event of a large scale disaster, up to 50 experts from the Singapore Armed Forces will be staffing the centre.
"Today, military coordination is met on an ad hoc basis. Whenever disaster happens, certain militaries will step up and they will respond and they even step up to take a leading role to do the coordination," said Brigadier-General Desmond Tan, Director of Joint Operations at the Singapore Armed Forces. "What we're trying to do is to set up a more permanent structure that will allow the militaries to have a single point of contact - a focal point."
