Experience of APEC in Disaster Management: Importance of BCP

Disaster risk reduction (DRR) could be implemented through different approaches. At national level, DRR is closely related to national safety, environmental sustainability and people’s livelihoods. Under APEC, an economy-oriented international organization, DRR could directly make contributions to securing safety of trade environment and business operation. Therefore, since 2011, APEC starts promoting business resilience by introducing business continuity plan (BCP), which receives warm welcomes and helps small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to better enhance capacity and capability when a disaster occurs. And APEC also encourages introducing innovative science and technology for better utilizing big data and sharing value-added information that will increase capacity building of disaster resilience at SMEs and Global Value Chains by raising digital preparedness. This chapter describes how APEC influences business sector to foster safer and smarter regional investment in consideration of frequent natural disasters.