MOSCOW, July 10 (Xinhua) -- A quarter of the 70,000 to 100,000 people who go missing in Russia every year are never found, highlighting an urgent need for more cooperation among federal agencies, according to one expert at a forum here on Tuesday.
Half of the missing are children, said Svetlana Chupsheva, director general of the Agency of Strategic Initiatives, who opened the first forum for volunteer search and rescue teams in the Moscow region.
She said interactions between federal agencies and volunteers involved in search and rescue operations will help save the lives of thousands of people, including children.
The main goal of the forum is to draw attention to the search and rescue of the missing people, the forum said in a statement.
More than 800 people across Russia took part in the forum, including representatives from federal and regional authorities, major state corporations, businesses and members of regional voluntary search and rescue teams.
The Agency of Strategic Initiatives, an autonomous non-profit organization, was set up by the Russian government to implement various economic and social measures.
