APEC Emergency Preparedness Working Group agrees strategies for promoting business continuity

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Published: Friday, 07 July 2017 08:30

Members of the APEC Emergency Preparedness Working Group have met in Nagoya, Japan, to discuss ways to improve the uptake of business continuity planning in the region.

At the meeting representatives from auto, electronics, insurance and finance firms assessed vulnerabilities and ‘fleshed out strategies for encouraging wider, more effective business continuity planning in APEC economies to mitigate risks’. The aim of the APEC Emergency Preparedness Working Group is to develop a more resilient supply chain through the ‘disaster-resilient trade initiative’; and business continuity planning is seen as a key component of this.

“Increasingly advanced production processes and new distribution patterns of raw materials, parts and services from global suppliers power modern manufacturing but are exposed to high risks including shocks caused by natural disasters,” explained Dr Li Wei-Sen, Executive Director of the APEC Emergency Preparedness Capacity Building Center. “If a plant in Japan that makes irreplaceable car-control chips or shiny pigment used in auto paint cannot continue its normal operation due to an earthquake, for example, it can impact car production all over the world through the influence of global supply chains.”

“Personnel and capital shortages, damages to production equipment and infrastructure, power outages and elevated cybersecurity threats are among the challenges that can hamper business operations in a disaster,” Dr Li continued. “We are boosting public-private policy coordination and development to ensure businesses – and the trade and communities they support – have proper planning in place to operate as seamlessly as possible during an emergency.”

Delegates examined the business continuity planning of companies such as Nissan and Fujitsu, and the importance of routine checks and random, unannounced drills for it to be effective. They also explored the potential for firms to transfer risk through disaster risk financing as well as the rating of business continuity plans to create financial incentives for their adoption.

Small and medium enterprises that are assuming a greater role in production and supply chains are a particular target. The aim is to reduce their acute preparedness gaps manifested during Super Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in 2013 which led to severe operational delays, inventory losses and declining sales within the sector.

“Public sector involvement in business continuity management is crucial to shielding local economic platforms such as business operations, employment and corporate tax revenues from disruptions after a disaster,” concluded Professor Kenji Watanabe of the Nagoya Institute of Technology and Vice-Chair of the Business Continuity Advancement Organization. “Collaboration in APEC is setting new and welcome standards for securing livelihoods and sustainable growth in disaster-affected areas and beyond.”