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Business Continuity Facility Inauguration

Remarks by
Haruhiko Kuroda
President
Asian Development Bank

8 August 2008
Clark, Pampanga

Distinguished guests, colleagues and friends: thank you very much for joining us today.

The opening of our new Business Continuity Facility is a historic and important occasion for ADB, and one that takes our institution into a new era of operational security.

We have all heard the advice: "hope for the best but plan for the worst." While ADB has taken many steps over the years to "plan for the worst," the establishment of this facility represents, I think, a giant leap forward. It is the first time in ADB's history that such an effort has been undertaken to create an off-site, fully functioning and effective back-up work facility. By doing so, we are ensuring access to critical functions and protecting ADB from potentially significant losses - financial and otherwise - in the event of a major emergency, natural disaster or other disruption at our headquarters in Manila.

Should such an event occur, this dedicated facility will allow us to immediately resume core operations off-site for a period of up to six weeks initially, and up to three months after further upgrades of the facility in the near future. This means that, loans, technical assistance and grant disbursements will continue, our staff will continue to be paid, and other day-to-day business will be taken care of in a cost-effective manner.

As we will see in a few moments, the facility has been designed to provide office space, a fully equipped control room with communication facilities, a ready to use data center, and general services support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This will enable us to maintain the information and technology infrastructure and critical business and treasury related processes that support our operations.

With transactions averaging $4 billion per day, the importance of maintaining operations cannot be overstated. It is not only our ability to achieve our strategic objectives that is at stake, but also our reputation, our triple-A credit rating, and the confidence of our investors, development partners, member developing countries and staff.

As most of you know, the Business Continuity Facility is the result of several years of hard work, beginning with the establishment of the Business Continuity Management Working Group in 2002. In August 2003, 22 critical business processes were grouped according to priority; and, in February 2005, ADB's business continuity strategy was completed. The new facility, also approved in 2005, is an integral part of our business continuity plan, which spells out how ADB will continue to operate in the event of an emergency. I was very pleased last December to conduct the ground-breaking ceremony for the facility, and I am even more pleased that the project has been completed on time and on budget. Looking to the future, it will be critical to have everyone's cooperation in continuous testing of the site to ensure its immediate availability, should it be needed.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Board for its support, and the many staff who have devoted their time and energy to this endeavour. I would also like to recognize the Clark Development Corporation, and the Philippine-Sundt Construction and Development Corporation for their partnership and their presence here today. With the new building and systems in place, we can be confident in ADB's ability to serve its member countries and continue its mission of poverty reduction, even under the most challenging of circumstances.

And now, it is my pleasure to declare the Business Continuity Facility officially up and running.

Thank you very much.