Need for BCM in public and private sectors
5 July 2010 (The Star)

KUALA LUMPUR: The need to implement Business Continuity Management (BCM) in both the public and private sectors has become pertinent, says Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Fadillah Yusof.

The BCM he said, is important to prevent common problems and risks, from interrupting the daily business flow.

"We are living in an interconnected world where common interests share common problems and risks to the continuity of business. Natural disasters, physical damage and cyber attacks are some of the shared risks to business continuity.

"When it happens, the daily flow of busines is interrupted. That is why we share the responsibility of resolving it, and hence, the need to implement the BCM at both the public and private sectors, " he added.

He also said that the government had to play a role to prevent the problem.

"Several initiatives have been undertaken before, such as making it mandatory for all financial institutions to implement the BCM.

"We have also organised workshops by the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) for MSC Malaysia Status Companies and training programmes to increase the number of BCM Professionals by CyberSecurity Malaysia," he told a press conference after launching the 12th World Continuity Congress 2010 here on Monday.

The BCM is a long-term management process that identifies the impact of potential threats to an organisation and provides a framework for building resilience and the capability for an effective response.

Fadillah highlighted that implementation of the BCM would help further strengthen Malaysia as the most enterprising Business Continuity-Disaster Recovery nation in the region.

Meanwhile, the founder and President of the BCM Institute, Goh Moh Heng said implementation of the BCM, other than by big and multinational corporations, will also help Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to survive disasters.

"It is essential as SMEs are fragile, but contribute significantly to the Malaysian economy," he added. - BERNAMA