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Business Continuity Management in China enters a standard-based era

07 September 2009

British Standards Institution China (BSI) and Global Data Solutions Limited (GDS), signed an agreement in June whereby BSI will provide GDS with certification services based on the globally recognized BS 25999 Business Continuity Management (BCM) Standard.  This is the first-ever Chinese certification contract in the BCM area and it means that BCM in China has entered a standard-based era.

Mr. Deng, Director-General at the Development Research Center of the State Council, and one of China’s foremost leading BCM experts expressed his excitement in seeing BSI and GDS enter a partnership that signals the beginning of a new era in the development of BCM in China.  Mr. Deng pointed out the significance of this partnership in promoting BCM as an important risk management tool for both the Chinese government and private enterprises. He praised BS 25999 as a critical tool for allowing government regulators and BCM practitioners to implement and examine existing BCM systems and identify areas for further improvements.

Mr. Moyuan Liu, Managing Director of BSI China commented that in this challenging market environment, all organizations, no matter what size, need to maintain business continuity both from a social and a business perspective. He claimed that an international standard such as BS 25999 would provide the most complete assurance for business continuity. This partnership between BSI and GDS not only drives GDS’ development and growth in the areas of disaster recovery and BCM from a standard-based perspective, it also provides useful lessons for the Chinese government and Chinese business enterprises in satisfying their demand for benchmarking BCM practices.

Mr. William Huang, CEO and President of GDS said that GDS has always been committed to enhancing its service quality and customer satisfaction through establishing standardized, secure and efficient management systems.  He pointed out that this partnership between BSI and GDS gives GDS a “First-in-China” status and allows GDS to integrate the best practices stemming from the BS 25999 worldwide certifications with GDS’ existing methodologies. He claimed that this would help both the Chinese government and private businesses to improve their business continuity capabilities.

Related background

With the frequent unforeseen natural disasters that have occurred in recent years, including snowstorms, earthquakes, floods and hurricanes, every government and business enterprise should establish a business continuity management system, and the related contingency plans and disaster recovery plans.  The US Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) contains specific requirements for business continuity management.  SOX Section 404 requires that an enterprise should establish a basic infrastructure that would ensure that all records and data would not be destroyed, lost, modified without authorization and improperly used – this allows business continuity management to become one of the tools to satisfy the SOX requirements.

In June 2008, China’s Ministry of Finance, General Audit Office, China Banking Regulatory Commission, China Securities Regulatory Commission and China Insurance Regulatory Commission jointly issued what has been termed the Chinese version of SOX” – “Basic Guidelines for Internal Control,” which became effective for all publicly listed companies in China on July 1st 2009.  Article 37 of this guideline states that “enterprises should establish an early warning system for major risks and an emergency response mechanism for unexpected events, as well as a set of clear risk warning standards.”  For potential significant risks and unexpected events, contingency plans should be developed, along with clear responsibilities and procedures, in order to ensure that any unexpected events would be dealt with promptly and properly.  This is the first time multiple Chinese government agencies and regulatory bodies have explicitly stated their requirements for business continuity management capabilities.

Photo: 

Mr Moyuan LIU, Managing Director of BSI China (right), and Mr William HUANG, CEO and President of GDS, signed on behalf of the two parties. Representatives from the Development Research Center of the State Council, the Certification and Accreditation Administration of the PRC (CNCA), China Certification and Accreditation Association (CCAA), China BCM Committee, China Software Industry Association (CSIA), China Council for International Investment Promotion (CCIIP), and the British Embassy attended the signing ceremony and bore witness to the signing of this breakthrough contract.