The Civil Defence Exhibition and Conference yesterday honoured all participants by presenting them with a certificate and a memento at a function hosted by Dar Al Sharq at the Diplomatic Club. The three-day exhibition and conference officially concluded with a banquet after the certificates were presented to the participants by Staff Colonel Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Suweidi, General Director of General Administration of Civil Defence and Chairman Exhibition Organising Committee and Abdul Latif Al Mahmoud, General Manager of Dar Al Sharq.
"The expo was a grand success and on behalf of the organisers I congratulate all top officials of the General Administration of Civil Defence and the Ministry of Interior for supporting and encouraging us in this mega event," said Abdul Latif Al Mahmoud. "We believe the message of 'making our world safe and secure' has gone out loud clear to the people here in Qatar."
Exhibition Manager Eiz Eldin Abdrahman thanked and praised all ministry officials, the Civil Defence department and exhibitors for participating and making the expo successful. "The main objective of spreading awareness of safety and security was fulfilled and some unique products and systems were seen," said Abdrahman. "I hope the engineers and professionals from various companies here in Qatar will build and develop the new partnerships that they have forged during the exhibition."
"This exhibition has certainly made and an impact by spreading the message of safety and security and how important it is to plan for contingencies," said John Nemer, Operations Co-ordinator for Internal and External Exhibitions of QIEC. "It was our privilege to host such a big international expo. We hope the organisers and the Civil Defence department will plan more such events in the near future."
Abdul Majeed Abdulla Al Lenjawi, Head of Safety and Security, Qtel, said the conference was "beneficial to safety experts". Some of the visiting speakers from the UK made elaborate presentations on "Global Threats and Lessons from Past Emergencies", 'The Hidden Risks" and "The Road Map to Compliance".
Doha Industrial Safety Services (DISS) Managing Director Haridas Nair also praised the organisers and said "This expo has set the trend for greater events to follow in the future. We have had a good response at the exhibition and we look forward to hearing from potential clients who visited our pavilion.
"Our main aim to participate in the Civil Defence Exhibition was to spread awareness about the vital need to learn about safety practices. There are many facets to safety. In case of an emergency one should know what to do. For instance, there may be a fire blanket hung on the wall like a show piece, but do the occupants of that house or a public place know how to use?"
People who visited the DISS pavilion at the expo learned that there is far more to safety and emergency than just offering CPR to a person. DISS is in the business of offering quality training in industrial safety, environment, paramedic, security, risk management, emergency responses and rescue management, he added.
By Sudeep Sonawane
© The Peninsula 2007
