As. Huque, DISASTER MANAGEMENT AND THE INTERORGANIZATIONAL IMPERATIVE - THE HONG-KONG DISASTER PLAN, Issues and studies - Institute of International Relations, 34(2), 1998, pp. 104-123
While rapid economic development in East Asia has led to affluent soci
eties, progress in the area of disaster management has lagged. Several
recent disasters in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Korea indicate that
it is necessary to devise comprehensive plans for disaster management
in the region. A review of disaster plans in general and the Hong Kon
g Disaster Plan (HKDP) in particular reveals a number of weaknesses in
such endeavors from the organizational point of view. This paper argu
es that disaster management plans have usually been unable to provide
an adequate framework due to the unique nature of decision-making, com
munication, and coordination under extraordinary circumstances. The is
sue of interorganizational cooperation could be dealt with by using sm
all task-based groups and involving nongovernmental organizations, so
as to take advantage of their flexible structure and diverse expertise
in complementing public agency efforts in disaster management.