S'pore vies to be a recovery center

S'pore vies to be a recovery center

Agence France-Presse, Singapore

Singapore wants multinational corporations to use it as a base to back up their data and communications systems in the event of a terrorist attack elsewhere, a government minister said Thursday.

Staff critical to a company's operation would also be given a place to work under the plan, Trade and Industry Minister George Yeo said at the opening of Indian software company Satyam's (SAY) disaster recovery center.

"The threat of war and terrorism has increased the vulnerability of information and business systems all over the world," Yeo said. "Singapore is well-positioned to provide disaster recovery and business continuity services because of its excellent connectivity to all the major economic centers of the world."

Already, companies like IBM, Citibank, Polaris, BNP Paribas, NCS Pearson and Hewlett Packard Co. have established disaster recovery operations in the wealthy island nation, Yeo said.

He said analysts were forecasting the Asia-Pacific market for such services was expected to be worth more than US$1.3 billion by 2006, growing more than 20 percent a year.

As further incentive, Singapore has developed a new work permit for disaster recovery staff to enter the country and quickly begin work.

Singapore has been commended by the U.S. and others for its efforts to reduce the risks of a terrorist attack. The government has arrested 32 suspected terrorists since Dec. 2001 and shut down four cells belonging to Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaida linked group that has been blamed for bombings that killed more than 200 people on the Indonesian island of Bali.

The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks brought many Wall Street firms to a halt for nearly a week.

Although many have taken steps to prevent their operations from shutting down again, the U.S. government's General Accounting Office issued a report earlier this month saying that banks, brokerage firms, exchanges and clearing firms must improve their disaster recovery planning.