PHL business 'well-prepared' for disaster risks, says expert

 

Most businesses in the Philippines are "well-prepared" for risks associated with natural disasters, a risk management expert said.

 

"In the Philippine context most of the businesses are pretty well prepared," Daniel Bould, Aon regional director in crisis management, said in a forum on Tuesday.

 

"We're exposed in the Philippines to typhoon, we're exposed to earthquakes – we know that... Rather than let them (businesses) get stuck up on those risks, we take them as a learning opportunity," Bould noted.

 

"You take recent events: Typhoon Yolanda that struck rather unexpectedly. [From that] they were very well prepared. I think what most businesses have done have been very positive."

 

A multinational risk management and insurance services provider, Aon found – in its 2015 Global Risk Management Report – that "environmental risk" ranks 29th among the things that most concern businesses around the world. 

 

Meanwhile, the scarcity or availability of natural resources for raw materials is at number 40 and climate change at 45.

 

Launched Tuesday the report noted risks perceptions "are often influenced by news headlines," which include weather and natural disaster conditions for the last quarter of 2014:

 

A year after Yolanda, which swept across Central Philippines in November 2013, leaving over 6,000 people dead and damage to property estimated at P35.5 billion, businesses found that retail, trade, and tourism thrived.

 

Small businesses, particularly in the province of Leyte, also found help from local and international non-government organizations. 

 

Bould noted most of the executives he spoke to prior to the forum disclosed having prepared a disaster plan. 

 

He also sees the Philippines can "leap some bounds" with public-private partnership projects.

 

"Hopefully, we don't stagger," he said. "I've unbelievable confidence with where the Philippines is going." – VS, GMA News