Ceylon Chamber proceeds with ‘business continuity training’ for private sector

The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce is expanding its work to strengthen business continuity across Sri Lanka’s private sector, with the latest in a continuing series of Business Continuity Management (BCM) workshops completed this week.

The work directly supports the National Disaster Management Plan 2023–2030, which identifies the Ceylon Chamber as a lead implementing entity responsible for helping private-sector businesses prepare and implement Business Continuity Plans for disaster recovery and sustainability.

The two-day workshop conducted through the Chamber’s Centre for SMEs brought businesses through the key elements of Business Continuity Management, organisational resilience and disaster preparedness, with a focus on maintaining critical operations and recovering when disruptions occur.

The national plan recognises that keeping private-sector manufacturing, production, services and employment functioning during a disaster is an important part of national preparedness. It specifically calls for businesses to develop contingency plans and integrate them with wider disaster management structures.

This gives business continuity a significance beyond individual companies. A disruption to one business can affect employees, suppliers, customers and other businesses across a supply chain, making preparedness an important part of maintaining economic activity when a disaster or other major disruption occurs.

The workshop uses an ISO 22301:2019-based BCM curriculum developed under the World Food Programme’s Disaster and Climate Resilience Project. It was facilitated by Bandula Wickramarachchi, an ISO-certified BCM trainer specialising in Business Continuity Management and organisational resilience.

Through its Centre for SMEs, the Chamber is continuing to conduct BCM workshops and capacity-building programmes for corporates and SMEs. The programmes are designed to help businesses identify critical functions, assess potential disruptions and establish arrangements for responding to and recovering from them.