Contingency planning for earthquakes in Asia

Abstract

For private sector business continuity managers and public sector emergency managers alike, the potential risk and impact of a catastrophic earthquake in one of Asia’s manufacturing centres, such as the Philippines, or in one of Asia’s financial centres, such as Singapore, are hard to ignore. This paper examines the state of preparation, mitigation, response and recovery (the phases of emergency management) and analyses the risk and impact (phases of business continuity management) of an earthquake in Asia. The paper concludes that companies and communities in Asia will recover from a catastrophic seismic event only if business continuity and emergency management professionals can learn from one another.