Singapore's resilience crucial in maintaining business hub reputation

SINGAPORE, March 10 (Bernama) -- Singapore needs to strengthen its
resilience in order to maintain its city-state reputation as a trusted and reliable hub for business and build upon its ability to weather crisis that might come its way, says Minister of State for Trade, Industry and Manpower, Lee Yi Shyan

"This includes having our local businesses demonstrate that they are
reliable partners to work with even in crisis situations.

"More than ever, the ability to maintain corporate sustainability and
business continuity is crucial for businesses to survive in today's world," he
said at the Business Continuity Management Conference 2011 here Thursday.

Lee said many regional and international companies have made Singapore their
base to venture further into the emerging markets of Asia.

"Having a stable and reliable home base from which to operate will
therefore be a key business consideration.

"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," he said.

He also said enterprises can prepare for emergencies and crisis by first
identifying their business risks and their potential impact.

"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.

"Our strengths include, having excellent telecommunications infrastructure,
a stable political and social climate and being free from natural disasters," he
added.