SM Prime and UN ISDR HOST CONFERENCE ON MAKING CORPORATIONS SAFER AGAINST DISASTERS

SM Prime Holdings hosts today’s UN International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction Forum entitled “The Top Leaders Forum: Building an Asian Private Partnership to Make Corporations Safer Against Disasters”. This forum is the result of the buddling partnership initiated by SM  Prime Holdings president Hans T. Sy between the UN ISDR and SM Prime which  emphasizes the importance of business continuity and disaster resillience within the Asia private sector.

 

In 2011 alone, 274 billion US$ out of the 365 billion US$ economic losses due to disasters in the world occurred in Asia, which is the most affected continent by disasters. In Thailand alone, in 2011, floods forced 1,000 factories to shut down and more than 700,000 people out of work. In Japan more than 337 companies went bankrupt after the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami hit the country in 2011.

 

Invited by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and M.Hans, President of SM Prime Holdings in the Philippines, managers from different business sectors will discuss concrete approaches to make their corporations more resilient against disasters and devise a plan of action that will make their supply chains and employees safer against floods, typhoons and earthquakes which caused more than 274 billion US$ of economic losses last year in Asia.

 

It is expected that the new Asian Private Private Partnership will bring concrete proposals to increase the adoption of Business Continuity Management which was recommended by the last APEC meeting in Honolulu last November and propose a number of concrete recommendations that will be further discussed at the Fifth Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction to be held in Indonesia from 22 to 25 October 2012 and the Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva in 2013.

 

During the same event, PriceWaterhouseCoopers will organize a Business Continuity Management (BCM) simulation and AXA Philippines will present its last report on its BCM programme.

 

Participants who are coming are AXA Philippines Chairman Solomon Cua and President and CEO Rien Hermans, Kokusai Kogyo Holdings Co. Ltd. President and CEO Sandra Wu, Manulife Philippines President and CEO Indren Naidoo, Zest Airways’ President and CEO Alfredo Yao, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry President and Chairman Atty. Miguel Varela, and Philippine Daily Inquirer’s president Sandra Prieto Romualdez.

 

Other participants include Ayala Corporation’s Managing Director Ramon Opulencia, PHINMA’s Rolando Soliven, representing Ramon Del Rosario, Philippine Stock Exchange’s  Head of Internal Unit, Atty Roel Refran, Accenture’s Country Managing Director Manolito Tayag, First Gen/Energy Development Corporation’s Chairman Federico Lopez, Meralco’s SVP Al Panlilio, Bank of the Philippine Island Vice President Ma. Carmencita Sayong, and US Ambassador Harry Thomas.

 

Also will be there are Bench Vice President Bryan Lim, Globe Telecom Director Edgar Hapa, Jolibee Food Corporation VP for Real Estate William Tan Untiong, PLDT/ Smart Public Affairs Head Mon Isberto, Teleperformance Senior Executive Dave Rizo and Federation of Filipino-Chamber of Commerce Chairman Francis Chua.

 

The forum will have a morning session where UNISDR and its partners will introduce the UNISDR Private Sector Advisory Group created in 2011 and explore how Business Continuity Planning can be an effective way to make businesses more resilient against disasters in Asia.  The afternoon session will propose a technical panel discussion that will be opened to a large group of experts to discuss concrete actions to strengthen the resilience of businesses against disasters.