Civil Defence Minister John Carter will join Otago's Civil Defence Emergency Management Group for its region-wide exercise on Thursday February 19.

Exercise Paradise has been designed by the Group to test Otago's arrangements for responding to a major earthquake affecting most of the region. The exercise will assume an earthquake occurred on the Alpine Fault west of Paradise Valley.

The exercise has been designed largely as a learning opportunity to allow the five city and district councils and the Group to activate their emergency operating centres and practice their communications across the region.

"It is important for me to take part in a region-wide exercise of this nature," Mr Carter said.  "I will observe firsthand the operating centres and their application across a regional group. 

"I have never attended an exercise of this nature, and the view from a regional perspective can be quite different from what I see nationally.  Understanding those different perspectives is important for me as the Minister."

Otago Regional Council Chairman Stephen Cairns said it would great to have the Minister on board during the exercise which would help him understand the affects of a major earthquake on Otago towns and give him a sense of the regional teams working together during an emergency event.