Speech by MOS Koh Poh Koon at SBF's Business Continuity Management Annual Conference

​SPEECH BY DR KOH POH KOON, MINISTER OF STATE FOR TRADE & INDUSTRY AT THE SINGAPORE BUSINESS FEDERATION’S BUSINESS CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT ANNUAL CONFERENCE   “ENSURING ENTERPRISE RESILIENCE IN UNPREDICTABLE TIMES” WEDNESDAY, 6 JANUARY 2016, 10:05 AM,  ORCHARD HOTEL SINGAPORE

Mr Ho Meng Kit, Chief Executive Officer, Singapore Business Federation

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

Good morning

1. It is my pleasure to join you today at SBF’s annual conference on business continuity management (BCM). We are here to learn about best practices in BCM, and to recognise the efforts of Singapore companies to enhance their capabilities in business resilience.

Preparing for risks amid a volatile global economic environment

2. 2015 was a year marked by uncertainty. Our companies were affected by a volatile global economic environment. Regionally, the haze from August to October 2015 had a significant impact on businesses here as consumers chose to stay indoors and tourist numbers dropped, while the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak in South Korea led to cancellations for Singaporean businesses with hospitality and tourism operations in South Korea, such as tour group operators.

3. It is increasingly important that our enterprises be well prepared for unexpected disruptions.  Cyberattacks on companies, exploiting vulnerabilities arising from digital technology adoption, increased from 2,581 occurrences in 2013 to 4,227 in 2014 [1], a 64 per cent increase in just one year. With increasing connectivity, organised protests are also becoming more common, such as Occupy Hong Kong and Bersih in Malaysia last year, which affected businesses in the retail and tourism sectors. Beyond such large-scale disruptions, minor disruptions can also affect our businesses, such as power outages, ceiling collapses and fires.

4. SMEs, in particular, are more vulnerable to disruptions than larger organisations, as they have fewer resources to deal with unforeseen contingencies. It is therefore important that our SMEs build resilience into their businesses, and ensure that they are able to recover from unexpected shocks.

5. The adoption of BCM standards is one way for enterprises to systematically identify risks, develop contingency plans, and enhance their business resilience. SBF, with support from SPRING Singapore, has been helping enterprises with the adoption of BCM standards since 2008. The standards enable businesses to understand and prioritise the threats to their businesses, as well as put in place a management system to protect against, reduce the likelihood of, and ensure that the business recovers from disruptive incidents.

6. Since the introduction of the Singapore BCM standard SS 540 by SPRING Singapore in 2008, as well as the international BCM standard ISO 22301 in late 2012, some 200 enterprises have tapped on funding support from the Government to defray their investment in developing and enhancing their BCM capabilities. These efforts have contributed to Singapore’s fourth position ranking for BCM standards adoption in a survey by the ISO in 2014.

Recognising enterprises’ resilience efforts

7.Today, we recognize 21 of some 55 Singapore enterprises that have attained the enterprise resilience certification between 2013 and 2014. The attainment of this certification has not only helped companies to improve their business resilience, but has also provided them with differentiated competitive advantages.

8. One good example of this is RMA Contracts Pte Ltd, which provides outsourced business solutions such as document digitisation and data entry services to government agencies and other companies. RMA recognised that its services were a critical part of its customers’ business processes, and worked to attain BCM certification, to ensure that it is able to support its customers even during disruptions. In addition, having the internationally-recognised ISO 22301 standard helps to brand, differentiate and thereby strengthen RMA’s competitive edge both in Singapore as well as overseas. This has enabled RMA to grow its revenue from $800,000 in 2004 to $45 million in 2014 – a compound growth rate of 50% per annum – and also allowed it to expand to Malaysia, India, the UAE and Myanmar.

9. Another example is Safeguard Systems & Services, which offers security guard services as well as security and safety consultancy services. When embarking on its BCM certification, its staff was initially apprehensive and resistant to the additional work required. However, through a number of training and dialogue sessions with their external consultant and their managing director, as well as involvement in key projects like Business Impact Analysis, the staff soon appreciated the importance of having a robust BCM system to support the organisation’s continued growth and development, and how they could benefit.

10. Since April 2015, Safeguard Systems & Services and larger companies such as ST Aerospace have been serving as BCM Ambassadors to share their BCM experiences with other companies, thereby helping other companies shorten their learning curves. I urge other certified enterprises to also come forward as BCM Ambassadors and in so doing, contribute to the overall resilience of Singapore’s enterprises and business ecosystem.

Supporting Singapore companies’ resilience efforts

11. The Government will continue working with SBF and the industry to support new initiatives that will enhance BCM capabilities among enterprises. Firstly, SBF will partner has partnered with the Singapore Logistics Association (SLA) and relevant government agencies to launch a BCM-Readiness framework handbook for enterprises in the logistics sector. This framework was developed through surveys and focus group discussions with SLA member companies, and can be used by enterprises in the cold chain, warehousing and storage businesses to assess and improve their readiness against disruptions. I am happy to note that this handbook will be launched today and will help logistics enterprises to better develop their business continuity plans for the future.

12. Secondly, SBF is implementing a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) initiative, in which SMEs can tap on SPRING’s support to develop BCPs that are verified by a third-party auditor. This provides a simpler way for companies to strengthen their business processes without the need for full ISO 22301 BCM certification. The initiative will help enterprises develop their contingency plans quickly for specific and recurring scenarios such as haze-related disruptions, and it serves as a stepping stone for full BCM certification in the future.

Companies can gain a competitive edge with strong continuity focus
13. As more enterprises enhance their BCM capabilities, it will elevate the overall productivity, quality and competitiveness of Singapore’s industries. This will also result in the creation of a reliable business environment for SMEs, through the growth of a pool of dependable and resilient local business partners. At today’s conference, you can look forward to hearing from businesses sharing their insights and experiences on business continuity. I hope it will be informative and offer good ideas which you can take back in reviewing how you can enhance the resilience and competitiveness of your businesses.

14. With this, I wish you a fruitful day ahead. Thank you.

[1] Source: https://www.pwc.com/us/en/private-company-services/publications/assets/pwc-gyb-cybersecurity.pdf​

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