By Wang Fengfeng, Chen Ming

    PORT LOUIS, Jan. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Delegates from some 40 small island nations convened Monday on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, coordinating efforts to raise disaster preparedness andplea for international help in building an early warning system after the devastating tsunami swept through the Indian Ocean.

    The tsunami, which left a trail of devastation in Asia and Africa and killed over 150,000 people from Thailand to Somalia hasgiven the meeting an expected urgency, with nearly every speaker talking about the disaster and an early warning system in the Indian Ocean in case of "next time."

    Mauritian Prime Minister Paul Raymond Berenger, who is also thepresident of the meeting, said in the opening session of the UN International Meeting to Review the Implementation of the Program of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States that there are "lessons to be learnt from the tragedy that resulted from the tsunami."

    "Many lives could have been saved had there been an appropriateearly warning system in the Indian Ocean," Berenger said.

    Anwarul Chowdhury, the meeting's secretary general, who's also UN high representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States,said at a press briefing the meeting is to coordinate on a global warning system, and "take it to (Japan's) Kobe," which is to host a UN World Conference on Disaster Reduction, and make out the details of the global system, called for at a summit in Jakarta last week.

    "Between Mauritius and Kobe, we can establish a network of all existing early warning systems," Chowdhury said.

    As for the meeting, delegates are to "seriously reflect on concrete recommendations regarding the setting up of early warningsystems and methods of operating them," Berenger said.

    He also called for international help to set up such a system, saying small islands, devastated by natural disasters all through the year 2004, will take years to repair their damage.

    Chowdhury also said small island states cannot afford the technology, or have no such expertise needed for the sophisticatednetwork, calling on the United Nations and the donor community to help.

    "The UN family must spare no effort in addressing the immediatetask of setting up such early warning system," Berenger said.

    Apart from the early warning system, the nations still have a lot to do regarding disaster preparedness.

    Pynee Chellapermal, the coordinator of the meeting's civil society forum, said the tsunami is an "eye opener" to all, but theinternational society shouldn't "shut ourselves to (only) the humanitarian aspect."

    He said nations should change their mindset, and even the way they "build the roads and the houses," especially in the Indian Ocean, where there's not been many tsunamis.

    The question is if there is another tsunami, "how can we ensurethere's not so much damage," as this time.

    As for how to implement these initiatives, Chowdhury made a call for South-South cooperation, both in disaster preparedness and a broader context, saying it can be a "cost effective" approach to the islands' problems.

    "The small island countries have a lot to learn from each other," Chowdhury said, noting if they do so, a lot could be done without excessive spending on expensive technologies from the developed world.

    "For example, the Caribbean region learnt many things during the cyclones" last year, he said, calling for the island countriesto tab the potentials.

    Waiting for the donor community to move can be crucifying. In the Barbados meeting, small islands and donor nations had agreed to tackle their challenges in partnership, but the Barbados Program of Action has been only partially implemented, partly due to a reduction in foreign aid. While foreign aid represented 2.6 percent of small islands' gross national income in 1990, it gradually diminished to only 1.0 percent in 2002.

    At the same time, small islands did not attract the levels of foreign private capital and foreign direct investments they had anticipated, mainly because they lack the market size, skilled labor and indigenous technological development to compete with larger developing countries for such investment flows, according to the United Nations.

    "Despite the efforts made by the small island developing states,the expectations for international support and cooperation for theBarbados Program have not materialized," Chowdhury said during theopening session. Against such a backdrop, South-South cooperation could be an alternative.

    Except for the disaster aspect, the meeting still has a lot to address. A Mauritian official to the meeting said although the tsunami seems to take center stage, there're still other priorities that shouldn't be forgotten, such as trade and AIDS.

    According to set agenda, the meeting was to deal with the future of small island nations faced with challenges ranging from hurricanes and climate change to trade losses and threats from HIV/AIDS. Small island nations are counting on the meeting to present their case to the international community, to seek partnerships and innovative ways to improve their situation. Enditem