The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is to officially launch the ASEAN Human Assistance Centre in Jakarta in June 2011 for study on mitigation of catastrophe and coordination in handling natural disaster in the region. Spokesman of the Indonesian Vice Presidential Office Yopie Hidayat said Indonesia had been selected to host the centre due to its experience in dealing with catastrophe. Indonesia, home to over 240 million population, has experienced a series of major earthquake and tsunami since 2004.