Mr Lee Yi Shyan at the Business Continuity Management (BCM) Conference 2011, 10 Mar 2011

Speech by Mr Lee Yi Shyan, Minister of State, Ministry of Trade & Industry and Manpower at the Business Continuity Management (BCM) Conference 2011 on 10 March 2011 at Mandarin Orchard Singapore at 9am

Mr Victor Tay, Acting CEO, Singapore Business Federation,

Mr Alphonsus Pang, President, Singapore Computer Society,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen.

Introduction

Good Morning, I am pleased to join you at the Business Continuity Management Conference 2011, jointly organized by the Singapore Business Federation and the Singapore Computer Society.

Recent Crises and Disruptions

The world has seen its fair share of crises in the past decade. The global financial crisis that started in 2007 was the most severe since the great depression. In late 2009, the IMF estimated that the economic costs amounted to US$11.9 trillion. More recently, political unrest in the Middle East has fuelled worries of oil supply disruptions and pushed oil prices up across the globe. Even health related crises can have grave economic implications. The 2009 H1N1 global pandemic claimed more than 18,000 lives worldwide and had wide scale impact on travel, trade, tourism and even foreign investments for countries. Today, with the world becoming increasingly inter-connected such disruptions can result in significant ripple effects on businesses.

Singapore as a Trusted Hub, leveraging on BCM

More than ever, the ability to maintain corporate sustainability and business continuity is crucial for businesses to survive in today’s world. Having a stable and reliable home base from which to operate would therefore be a key business consideration. In this regard, Singapore can leverage on its reputation as a trusted hub for businesses. Our strengths include, having excellent telecommunications infrastructure, a stable political and social climate and being free from natural disasters.

Indeed, many regional and international companies have made Singapore their base from which to venture further into the emerging markets of Asia. Rolls-Royce recently announced the opening of its global marine business headquarters in Singapore. More than half of its annual turnover, or some six billion US dollars, will be managed from Singapore. Global IT service provider, HCL Technologies has also demonstrated its confidence in Singapore by investing in a solutions laboratory here. The faculty will help businesses across the globe to harness the full power of mobile applications and services. HCL is looking to grow its manpower in Singapore from the current 1,100 to 5,000 in the next three years.

As announced at the recent budget, the Government has also committed another S$2.5 billion under the Economic Development Assistance Scheme to strengthen Singapore’s value proposition as a Global Asia Hub. It is therefore important for Singapore to build on our reputation as a trusted and reliable hub by further strengthening our resilience, as well as our ability to weather crises that might come our way. This includes having our local businesses demonstrate that they are reliable partners to work with even in crisis situations.

At the firm level, this means taking pro-active measures such as adopting the BCM framework. Enterprises can prepare for emergencies and crisis by first identifying their business risks and the potential impact of these risks. They can then devise effective strategies to maintain business continuity in the face of a disruption or crisis, recover business functions quickly and mitigate damages.

To help businesses strengthen their resilience and safeguard against disruptions, SPRING Singapore launched the national BCM programme in 2008 for businesses. The programme is currently administered by the Singapore Business Federation, which has been appointed the National BCM Focal Point for businesses.

So far, more than 7,000 enterprises have participated in seminars and workshops on BCM and learnt how to build up BCM capability within their organizations. Some $30 million has been set aside for the programme. For example, AiK Moh Paints & Chemicals and IPS Securex are here to receive the plaques of acknowledgement, and they have benefitted from this programme. Customers’ confidence and trust in these companies have grown after they obtained their BCM certification. By participating in the BCM programme, staff at IPS Securex has also gained a better understanding of the company’s internal work flow better, which has in turn created greater synergy in work processes within the company.

I am therefore heartened by the strong participation at today’s conference. This shows that our enterprises recognize the value of business continuity planning. They also understand it is a key competitive strategy, as this has a direct impact on their bottom line. The company that is able to maintain its operations and function in times of severe disruptions will be able to differentiate itself from its competitors. It will not only enhance its business reputation and consumer confidence, but also be in a position to seize on business opportunities whilst their less prepared competitors scramble to cope.

Conclusion

The BCM journey is a continuous effort to ensure that plans stay relevant and within the eco-system of the business value chain. I hope that the conference will inspire you to leverage on the assistance available through the BCM programme to boost your business resilience. On this note, let me wish you a fruitful session ahead.

Thank you.