The Thirty-first Session of the Panel on Tropical Cyclones for the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea held in Colombo from 1 to 6 March 2004.  It was attended by 37 participants representing seven of the eight Member countries of the Panel, namely Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Oman, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand as well as observers from China, Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC), International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Kharagpur, International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) and Saudi Arabia. The session was also attended by representatives from WMO, UNESCAP and the Technical Support Unit (TSU) of the Panel.

1.         The Panel has adopted in principle the list of names, submitted by the Members, for the cyclones in the subregion.  The list had been prepared, after a long period of consultation among the countries, by the Working Group on Cyclone Names established by the Panel about five years ago.  It is expected that this would lead to increased visibility of the Panel.

2.         At the Panel request, UNESCAP conducted a spontaneous survey during the Session to formulate the broad goals for the five components of the Panel’s Work Programme and priority areas in each component.  The findings were adopted by the Panel to form the framework to guide the Working Group on its Coordinated Technical Plan.  In this connection, the Panel decided to re-establish the Working Group on its Coordinated Technical Plan so as to strengthen impacts of collaboration among the Members.

3.         The Panel agreed to participate in the UN World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe in 2005 and requested WMO, UNESCAP and other collaborating organizations to assist in mobilizing resources to enhance participation of the Panel in the World Conference.

4.         The delegation of Sri Lanka expressed appreciation of UNESCAP in providing advisory services on strengthening its capacity to deal flash flood, including the arrangement to enable two meteorologists to be trained at the National Weather Services of USA recently.  It requested further assistance to enable it to effectively provide adequate warnings and forecasts on flash floods.