A centre has been launched in the capital to help businesses in the region prepare for different kinds of crises and manage the impacts if emergencies do occur.
The International Center for Business Resilienceaims to provide academic support and development training for companies and organisations across the Emirates and in the wider Arab world. It will function as a hub for academics and business people who can assist the response to emerging threats and challenges faced in the Middle East.
"It is essential that the UAE be perceived as a safe and resilient environment for business to grow and prosper," said Dr Ahmed Badr, the chief executive of the Abu Dhabi University Knowledge Group, which created the centre and is the commercial arm of Abu Dhabi University.
"Research has shown that much can be done to improve operational resilience by working with management teams," Dr Badr said.
The announcement came days after a magnitude-9 earthquake rocked Japan and triggered tsunami alerts in many countries around the Pacific.
"The UAE does have exposure to certain environmental conditions that are of concern," Dr Badr said. "While it is not a seismic zone, it is not far from parts of the world that are, and a significant area of the UAE is close to sea level and hence would be potentially vulnerable," he said. There is also a much greater awareness regionally about the potential fragility of economic systems, Dr Badr said, given the recent unrest that has disrupted businessin Bahrain and Libya and elsewhere in the Mena region.
Some UAE companies already have plans for certain threats. The telecommunications company du recently mobilised employees at its Dubai headquarters for an emergency evacuation, safety and response exercise. Employees designated "emergency co-ordinators" helped more than 1,000 of their peers to evacuate du's 45-storey building.
"These exercises ensure that best emergency procedures and contingency measures are implemented for employee safety and emergency response," said Fahad al Hassawi, du's chief human resources officer.
The centre's goals will include providing broader training by consulting businesses on their exposure to risks such as workplace accidents, threats to reputation, security breaches and supply chain failures. While terrorism had not emerged as an issue in the UAE to date, Dr Badr said, it was a concern for businesses that operated here and had offices in countries targeted by such activities.
"For businesses, the focus should be on all those things that potentially can disrupt normal business that may or may not be able to be controlled," Dr Badr said. "In all cases, their effects can be reduced by having proper business continuity plans in place, and that's where most of our effort will be focused."
More than 15,000 UAE nationals have been trained in recent years in emergency response care under the auspices of the Abu Dhabi University Knowledge Group.
