On April 28, the 2025 Disaster Prevention and Reduction Conference with the theme of "Innovation empowers disaster prevention and reduction, and helps develop new quality productivity" was held at the Hangzhou International Expo Center. The conference aims to focus on the academic frontiers of disaster prevention, mitigation and relief, industrial innovation and public welfare practice, and build a communication platform for the deep integration of government, industry, academia, research and application of financial insurance services, and inject new impetus into promoting the high-quality development of disaster prevention and mitigation.

The conference was sponsored by the China Disaster Defense Association. The experts and guests discussed the innovation of "moving the barrier forward and responding scientifically" to empower disaster prevention, mitigation and relief, and are committed to collaborative innovation in government, industry, academia, research and application, including disaster prevention, emergency safety, urban and rural resilience, disaster warning, disaster prevention technology, etc.

Ma Peihua, honorary president of China Disaster Defense Association, Zheng Guoguang, president of China Disaster Defense Association and former vice minister of the Ministry of Emergency Management, Zhou Guohui, former vice chairman of Zhejiang Provincial CPPCC, and Sun Xudong, member of the Standing Committee of Hangzhou Municipal Party Committee and Secretary of Xiaoshan District Party Committee, attended the main forum of the conference and delivered speeches. Chen Xiaojun, Vice President of the China Disaster Defense Association, and Tang Bao, Vice President and Secretary-General, presided over the main forum of the conference. The main forum also awarded the Science and Technology Awards of the China Disaster Defense Association in 2023 and 2024.

Ma Peihua emphasized that technological progress is an important source of pre-disaster prevention, innovation and industrial upgrading. We must understand the specific factors that affect and restrict the transformation, dissemination and spread of technological progress and scientific and technological innovation achievements, and solve the problems of the transformation and application of scientific and technological innovation achievements. We must establish a technological innovation system based on the main body of the enterprise, strive to achieve the transformation from focusing on post-disaster assistance to focusing on pre-disaster prevention, and do a solid job in the transformation and application of scientific and technological innovation achievements.

Zheng Guoguang pointed out that the current disaster prevention and mitigation situation is severe, and scientific and technological innovation achievements such as artificial intelligence, DeepSeek big models, humanoid robots, and drones are constantly emerging and applied, providing a rare opportunity for the development of disaster prevention, mitigation and relief in the new era. Innovation empowers disaster prevention, mitigation and relief, which is no longer a "multiple-choice question", but a "must-answer question". We must seize the opportunity and accelerate the realization of intelligent, unmanned and automated disaster prevention, mitigation and relief.

Zhou Guohui said that as a major economic province, Zhejiang must seize historical opportunities, with a higher political stance and stronger sense of responsibility, while reforming and innovating and developing safely, continue to place disaster prevention, mitigation and relief work in a prominent position, and strive to create a new situation in disaster prevention, mitigation and relief work in Zhejiang.

Sun Xudong said that he hopes that the experts attending the meeting will share their experience and jointly discuss new ideas, new mechanisms and new methods in key areas such as accurate disaster identification, emergency response system, and cross-regional joint prevention and control, so as to contribute wisdom and strength to improving disaster prevention and relief capabilities.

During the meeting, Fan Weicheng, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Cui Peng, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Yue Qingrui, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, respectively gave keynote speeches to the conference. Yu Lizhi, former first-level inspector of the Safety Production Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Wu Xiaorong, deputy director of the Zhejiang Provincial Emergency Management Department, Zhang Daoming, vice president of China People's Property Insurance Co., Ltd., and Wang Xuan, director of government and enterprise industry of Hangzhou Yunshenchu ​​Technology Co., Ltd., gave special reports. Managers from emergency, fire protection, housing and construction, earthquake and other systems nationwide, as well as more than 200 experts and scholars from scientific research institutes and universities in the field of disaster prevention and mitigation engineering, shared academic reports and answered interactive questions through the conference platform. The number of participants on site exceeded 1,700, and more than a thousand people volunteered to observe.

The 2025 Disaster Prevention and Reduction Charity Conference was also held during the same period, linking charities, rescue teams, charity enterprises and volunteers to build a social governance network for disaster prevention and reduction. The 10,000 square meters of emergency equipment exhibition area set up by the conference is open to the public for free, and the latest achievements in emergency communications, intelligent rescue, monitoring and early warning are concentrated on displaying the latest achievements in the fields of emergency communications, intelligent rescue, monitoring and early warning. During the regional tour of safety emergency equipment (Hangzhou station) activities, the experience of building a urban disaster prevention system in Hangzhou and improving grassroots emergency capacity were shared, providing reference for regional coordinated development.

The conference also held 19 special sub-forums including the high-quality development sub-forum of the safety emergency industry, the sub-forum of monitoring and early warning and risk prevention and control of major natural disasters, the sub-forum of urban safety monitoring and early warning, and the sub-forum of disaster prevention and mitigation artificial intelligence, and carried out multiple academic exchanges and industrial docking activities simultaneously.

Participants believe that the convening of the meeting has a special and important positive role in promoting technical exchanges in the field of disaster prevention and mitigation, accelerating the innovative application of scientific and technological achievements in disaster prevention and mitigation, and stimulating scientific and technological workers in the field of disaster prevention and mitigation to work and start businesses and create enthusiasm for innovation and creation. Comprehensively improve the comprehensive prevention ability of the whole society to resist natural disasters and help develop new quality productivity.