Workshop on combating haze

Workshop on combating haze

MANILA (AFP): Southeast Asian governments and international donors are to hold a workshop here next week to step up cooperation in fighting haze from forest fires of the sort which enveloped the area last year, the organizers said yesterday.

The Manila-based Asian Development Bank announced it would host the Sept. 1 and Sept. 2 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting.

"A regional haze plan will be presented during the workshop to formalize cooperation among ASEAN countries affected by the haze that engulfed much of the region last year, causing the worst pollution ever recorded in Asia," the bank said in a statement.

The meeting will be attended by officials from ASEAN member countries Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam as well as "international institutions and concerned donor agencies", it added.