Sypnosis

Through the Safety and Security Watch Group (SSWG) programme, the Police can engage business communities on counter-terrorism measures such as enhancing on-site physical security of business premises.

The National Security Briefing at The Rock Auditorium, Suntec City Mall - Opening Address By Mr Wong Kan Seng, Deputy Prime Minister & Minister for Home Affairs

27 February 2009

Good Afternoon,

Members of the Safety & Security Watch Groups,

Business Community Partners,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Collective Vigilance

Over the years, we have seen various modus operandi of terror attacks such as hijacking, suicide bombings, guerilla-style attacks and multiple-hostage situations. But the stark outcome - the loss of innocent lives - remains the same, whatever the means deployed by the terrorists.

Collectively, we cannot allow acts of terror to paralyse us. The community and security agencies must come together to form a united vanguard against terrorism. Coordinated community involvement can significantly minimize risks of attack and can also mitigate the extent of damages. Certainly, more can be done. For example, the business community can play a significant role to further safeguard ourselves against terrorism.

Business Communities can play a part

Many of you are already part of the Safety and Security Watch Group or SSWG. The SSWG promotes the collective self-help efforts of the business community. In the unfortunate event that a terrorist attack occurs in your vicinity, the committees will be alerted and adjacent buildings can commence the necessary measures to mitigate the situation and provide their assistance to the authorities and the victims. By forming committees, we can draw on the strength of each other, the vigilance of our partners and the resilience of our collective group to quickly rebound and recover should any incident arise. In peace time, we can use this platform to share information with each other more readily and effectively.

Through the SSWG, the Police can engage you on counter-terrorism measures such as enhancing on-site physical security of business premises. This approach of Target Hardening is important as it is the most visible means of deterrence.

You can also work in close collaboration with the Police to adopt various security measures that are practical to your business operations. Examples of such measures should include appointing dedicated committees to look into security issues. These committees would be the effective contact points for the Police.

Cost of Risk Myopia

We understand that for some businesses, counter-terrorism measures may not rank high on their priority list, especially in the current economic climate when staying competitive and viable are your primary concerns. However, it is precisely in difficult economic times like these when we must resist the temptation to cut down on security measures, lest the terrorists exploit loopholes or your employees are inadequately prepared and react poorly to an attack.

Contrary to popular belief, enhancing security does not necessarily entail expensive investment in infrastructure. Placing more emphasis on contingency planning, providing staff training on how to respond to crisis and having on hand important information such as building plans and contact lists are in-house measures which will add value to businesses’ security efforts without increasing costs. This is an effort that will bring longer term benefits to your business.

Enhancing security preparedness is a conscious strategic decision that has to be made by top management executives like you. How extensively to invest is not something to be delegated to security managers, but rather, requires the close attention of top executives and managers. As the Mumbai incident illustrates, the less prepared one is, the greater the economic cost and business impact if an attack happens. Like all investments, security can yield significant returns and reduce disruption and opportunity costs if managed well.

A team led by the Police Director of Operations has just returned from a study visit to Mumbai. They will share with you later, lessons gleaned from their Mumbai counterparts, how simple measures have a dramatic impact in averting and mitigating catastrophes and in saving lives.

I would like to take this opportunity to highlight three tangible actions you can immediately take to enhance your security coordination and responsiveness.

Proactive steps you and your staff can take

First, you and your staff can play an active role in your Safety and Security Watch Group. This way, you are kept up to date with the latest terrorist tactics that will be shared through briefing sessions. You can leverage on this network to coordinate your responses during attacks.

Second, develop a contingency and business continuity plan for your establishments, taking into account the latest trends in the modus operandi used by terrorists. It is critical to put in place a spectrum of in-situ measures, which could be a combination of a measures ranging from structural hardening to operational measures to crisis and contingency plans. Build security into the design of your hotels wherever possible, as it is cheaper and can be more aesthetically pleasing. Put in place systems and control measures, such as access controls, CCTVs and other tangible measures.

Third, invest in the training of your staff so that they are ready with essential information like building plans and contact lists on hand. This will help save lives and complement the efforts of responding authorities in event of an attack.

Finally, test out your contingency plans by organising exercises, with the involvement from the Police and Civil Defence to coordinate the responses and familiarise your employees to the procedures. Such organised exercises would enable you to better understand your vulnerabilities, and work out steps to improve coordination and responsiveness in the event of a terrorist incident.

Exercise Northstar VII

In this connection, I would like to announce that Police, together with the Home Team Departments and related government agencies, will be conducting a large-scaled exercise - Northstar VII - in the second quarter of this year. Northstar VII will test the response of the government agencies and the community to a terrorist scenario similar to the attacks in Mumbai. We hope that some of you can be involved as participants of the exercise which will sharpen our response to such incidents.

In addition, the Home Team will be organising a workshop in the second half of this year, specially tailored for the industry's senior executives assigned with safety and security responsibilities. The duration of the workshop is between two and three days and will offer participants an appreciation of the security landscape; threats the industry could face; the fundamentals in security preparedness measures and the appropriate responses in order to effectively assist the authorities to manage any crisis arising from a terror attack.

We hope that by the end of the workshop, your staff will be in a better position to identify the gaps and develop plans and operational staff processes for an in-situ capability to deal with the immediate aftermath of a crisis.

We hope to make the workshop a regular event and to extend it to other industries. My Ministry will share more details of the workshop at a later date.

In conclusion, let me highlight that it is never too early to improve the security measures for your organisation. Neither should you be satisfied that you have done enough and there is nothing new for you to do to be better prepared. The Mumbai attacks have affirmed that internal processes and procedures, together with staff vigilance and continuous upgrading of these, play a vital complementary role to physical target hardening and providing in-situ protection against attacks.

Everyone within the organisation have a part to play in making the work environment a safer place for your clients and your employees.

On this note, let me thank you for coming to this briefing session despite your very tight work schedule and I hope you will find the sharing in today’s briefing useful.

Thank you.

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