Singapore Government looks at doing deals only with disaster-ready firms

Task force to study proposal; most firms don't have business continuity plans
Lee U-Wen, Business Times 22 May 08;

(SINGAPORE) Even as the risk of terrorism, natural disasters and possibly another global pandemic grows, most businesses in Singapore are hardly prepared to deal with such crises.

The government is now looking at whether to make it mandatory for firms to be certified disaster-ready before they are allowed to provide services to the public sector. In other words, they could require a TR19 certificate.

TR19 or Technical Reference 19, a three-year-old government initiative set up by Spring Singapore, is a set of standards that can test the effectiveness of a company's business continuity management (BCM) processes.

A multi-agency task force has now been set up to study how best to encourage more companies to come up with effective business continuity plans.

Speaking at the National Security Dialogue yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security S Jayakumar said that the inter-agency work group would be led by the Trade and Industry Ministry, and will involve other ministries such as Finance and Home Affairs.

Chief among the items on its agenda will be to discuss the pros and cons of whether it should be made compulsory for firms supplying 'essential or important services' to the government to obtain TR19 or the equivalent standard first, he said.

Letting the private sector come up with good BCM schemes without any nudging does not seem to be producing results.

According to surveys conducted by the Singapore Business Federation (SBF), less than a third of local companies here have such a plan in place.

TR19, meanwhile, has seen a poor take-up rate so far, with only about 100 companies expressing interest to date. The uptake 'has been slow due to cost concerns', SBF chairman Stephen Lee told some 500 business leaders at the dialogue yesterday.

Understandably, the cost of going for TR19 is one of the main concerns for companies. Depending on the size of the company and the amount of risk involved, the cost to get assessed and certified could be from as little as $5,000 to as much as $500,000, said an SBF spokesman.

Another chief reason for the lukewarm response by businesses is a lack of awareness and sense of urgency, said Minister of State for Trade and Industry Lee Yi Shyan.

'Companies themselves do not perceive the risk being real and there, so they tend to be slow in recognising the importance of BCM and incorporating this into their processes,' Mr Lee said.

For companies concerned about the extra costs incurred - especially SMEs - Mr Lee said that the task force would also study how best to provide appropriate grants and subsidies.

'Having a good BCM plan is an investment that companies must appreciate. A lot of our business models were built on the basis of it being peace time. Now, businesses must realise that this is a very volatile environment where things can go wrong quickly,' he said.

One of the early adopters of TR19 is wafer fabrication manufacturer Systems on Silicon Manufacturing.

'In going for TR19, we were able to consolidate the views of all the staff and identify the risks and how to tackle these emergencies, as well as to plan for the long term,' said the company's vice-president for corporate services, Lee On Nam said

'As Murphy's Law states: 'If anything can go wrong, it will',' he added.