At the 9th Session of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group (ICG) for the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (IOTWS) the ICG decided to conduct joint training workshops on Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for tsunami warning and emergency response in 2013 and 2014 involving the RTSPs, NTWCs, DMOs and media organisations, organised by ICG/IOTWS Working Groups 2 and 3. The first of these workshops, targeted at northern and eastern Indian Ocean countries, will be held at the Mercure Hotel in Ancol, Jakarta, Indonesia, 23-27 September 2013, hosted by the Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG). The primary goal of the workshop is to assist the ICG/IOTWS Member States to develop their SOPs for responding to RTSP bulletins. The objectives will be: to understand RTSP services and products; to understand the impact of the RTSP products on NTWC SOPs; to identify potential gaps and possible challenges for warning chain SOPs at the national level; to familiarise the electronic media with the RTSP service and develop/adapt SOPs for interfacing with the media; and to prepare for the IOWave14 Exercise, scheduled to take place in late 2014.

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