June 9 & 10, 2016
Hyatt Regency Osaka (HRO), Japan

The International Fire Chiefs’ Association of Asia (IFCAA) held its 29th General Conference on June 9 (Thu.), 2016 in Regency Ballroom (RB) A-D on the 3rd floor of Hyatt Regency Osaka (HRO). Two Conferences, namely the IFCAA General Conference and the 68th General Conference of the Fire Chiefs’ Association of Japan (FCAJ), were declared open at 10:00 a.m. This grand joint ceremony attracted approximately 500 IFCAA fire chiefs, executives and other emergency service members from 15 countries and two areas in Asia and Oceania.
The emcee declared the opening of the conference and it was followed by the overall silent prayer for the repose of lost firefighters’ soul, the conference host city’s greetings by Osaka City Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura and the IFCAA President’s greetings by Chief Eiichi Sugimoto of Kyoto City Fire Department (IFCAA Director) for Mr. Jun Takahashi (IFCAA President).
After the FCAJ Commendation, four special guests (i.e., Commissioner Atsuro Sasaki, Fire and Disaster Management Agency, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications; Deputy Governor Hiroyuki Takeuchi acting for the Governor of Osaka Prefecture; President Toshifumi Akimoto, Japan firefighters Association and Chairperson Makoto Kinoshita, Osaka City Assembly) made the congratulatory speeches and other guests were introduced. The opening ceremony was concluded with the announcement of the congratulatory messages delivered.

Opening Ceremony

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  Mayor Yoshimura, Osaka city
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  Chief Sugimoto, IFCAA Director
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The Regular Session was held after the opening ceremony in the same place at 11:10 a.m. It was chaired by Mr. Shigeki Fujii (Osaka Municipal Fire Department Chief and host city IFCAA director). First, IFCAA Secretary General Shunji Sugai announced a new IFCAA membership: one active member from Mongolia and 13 active members from the Philippines. Then the following seven proposals were deliberated over.

PROPOSALS
　1. The Achievements in the 28th Fiscal Year (2014&2015)
　2. The Financial Results in 28th Fiscal Year (2014&2015)
　3. The Projects in the 29th Fiscal Year (2016&2017)
　4. The Budget Plans in the 29th Fiscal Year (2016&2017)
　5. Promoting Effective Disaster Responses by Strengthening the Cooperation among
　　the International Fire-Rescue Teams
　6. Improvement of Responders’ Performance in Devastating Disasters
　7. The 30th General Conference

Proposals 1-4 were explained by IFCAA Secretary General Sugai and agreed upon. Proposal 5 was handled by Mr. Charles Ji-Tang Yeh, Director General of National Fire Agency, M.O.I., Taiwan, Proposal 6 was handled by Mr. Masato Kubota, Director General of Yokohama City Fire Bureau and were agreed upon and resolved. Proposal 7 was unanimously decided to hold the 30th General Conference in Tokyo in 2018. Then, Mr. Masayoshi Tsuchiya, Director of Tokyo Fire Academy of the Tokyo Fire Department read out a conference host message acting for Tokyo Fire Department Chief Jun Takahashi (IFCAA President).

Regular Session

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  Secretary General Sugai
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  Chief Fujii,
  Osaka Municipal FD
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  Director General Yeh,
  National Fire Agency
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  Director General Kubota,
  Yokohama City Fire Bureau
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  Director Tsuchiya,
  Tokyo Fire Academy

At 12:30 the host-organized excursion was given for overseas IFCAA members to see and learn in Osaka city. Meanwhile, Japanese IFCAA members attended the 68th FCAJ General Conference at 1:10 p.m.

On June 10 (Fri.) IFCAA 2016 OSAKA International Fire and Safety Exhibition was grandly declared open at 9:30 at Asia and Pacific Trade Center (ATC) with the ribbon-cutting opening ceremony attended by IFCAA President, Vice Presidents and others.
The IFCAA 2016 International Rescue Team Joint Drill was then given in the ATC outdoor ground at 10:15 a.m. and was followed by an observation of the exhibition and Hands-on Fire Fighting Festival.

IFCAA 2016 OSAKA International Fire and Safety Exhibition

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IFCAA 2016 International Rescue Team Joint Drill

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After lunch, IFCAA PresentationⅠ was held at 1:15 p.m. in RB-A-C with three speakers: Mr. Masaru Mizuochi (Chief, Naka Fire Station, Hiroshima City Fire Service Bureau), Mr. Mohammadreza Sheikh Kazem Barzegari (Urban Planning & Development Division Expert, Tehran Fire Department) and Mr. LAI Man-hin, David (Director of Fire Services, Hong Kong Fire Services Department).
At 2:25 p.m. after a 10-minutues break, IFCAA PresentationⅡ was held with three speakers: Brig. Gen. Ali Ahmed Khan, psc (Director General, Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence), Mr. Eric Yap Wee Teck (Commissioner, Singapore Civil Defence Force) and Mr. Shigeo Matsukawa (Chief, Administration Division, Tokyo Fire Department).
Lastly, President Takahashi presented the six speakers with presentation mementos.

IFCAA Presentation Ⅰ&Ⅱ

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  Chief Masaru Mizuochi
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  Expert Mohammadreza Sheikh Kazem Barzegari
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  Director LAI Man-hin, David
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  Brig. Gen. Ali Ahmed Khan, psc
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  Commissioner Eric Yap Wee Teck
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  Chief Shigeo Matsukawa
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After a break, the closing ceremony for the IFCAA - FCAJ joint General Conference was held in the same place at 3:40 p.m. First, on behalf of conference host city, Chief Shigeki Fujii of Osaka Municipal Fire Department gave his greetings. Then, the 28th Conference outcome was announced in the form of the IFCAA Declaration by IFCAA acting Vice President Mr. Bobby V Baruelo, Deputy Chief for Operations of Bureau of Fire Protection, the Philippines and President Takahashi extended his greeting. At the IFCAA Conference Host Plate Handover ceremony for the 2018 IFCAA Conference, Chief Fujii handed over the IFCAA commemorative plate to Tokyo Fire Department Chief Jun Takahashi (IFCAA President) as the 2018 Conference host. The two-day General Conference ended up with a huge success.

Closing Ceremony

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  IFCAA Declaration
  Deputy Chief Bobby V Baruelo
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  Host Plate
  From Osaka to Tokyo

At 4:30 p.m. the IFCAA - FCAJ joint press conference was held in RB-E with President, Vice Presidents and Directors attending.

Press Conference

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Participation in the 29th IFCAA General Conference

・Approximately 500 participants (Opening ceremony on June 9)
・Countries and Areas
○ IFCAA members (14 countries and 2 areas)
　Australia, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Malaysia (Only Joint Drill), Mongolia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand(Only Joint Drill)
○ Other (1 country)
　Vietnam

IFCAA Presentations

Other Related Events

○Directors’ Meeting
On June 8 (Wed.) the IFCAA Directors’ Meeting was held at 4:40 p.m. in RB-E as the preliminary session for the General Conference to deliberate on the proposals for the Regular Session. In addition, one executive from Mongolia and 13 executives from the Philippines were newly welcomed in as IFCAA active member.

○IFCAA 2016 OSAKA International Fire and Safety Exhibition
The IFCAA 2016 OSAKA Executive Committee held the IFCAA 2016 OSAKA International Fire and Safety Exhibition on June 10 (Fri.) and June 11 (Sat.) in ATC main hall and outdoors. The two-day event with 95 domestic companies attracted approximately 50,000 visitors.

○The IFCAA 2016 International Rescue Team Joint Drill
On June 9 (Thu.) an international rescue team joint drill - the second joint rescue demonstration in IFCAA’s history - was given in ATC outdoor ground at 10:15 a.m. Rescue team conducted high-rise building descent training and rescue operations with USAR technology (rescue skills for large-scale earthquakes) called “Searching” (rescue in collapsed buildings, etc.), and “Breaching” (break into reinforced concrete walls and floors).
Great performance was shown by Osaka Municipal Fire Department, International Rescue Team (IRT) in Osaka, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) trainees and 17 rescue personnel from nine IFCAA-member fire and emergency departments.

〈International Participants from IFCAA member countries and areas〉
Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence
The Central Fire Services, Ministry of Public Safety and Security, Korea
Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia
National Emergency Management Agency, Mongolia
Bureau of Fire Protection, The Philippines
Singapore Civil Defence Force
Bangkok Fire and Rescue Department, Thailand
Hong Kong Fire Services Department
National Fire Agency, Ministry of the Interior, Taiwan

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