(20 November 2013. Pasay City, Philippines) SM Prime Holdings, Inc. with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction will jointly tackle discussions on increasing private sector resilience through business practices and investments during the Top Leaders' Forum on November 22, 2013 to be held at the SMX Convention Center in Manila.

This is the second consecutive year that the UN in partnership with SM Prime will hold the Top Leaders' Forum. The forum is expected to draw over thirty CEOs and top managers from the region. This event is a unique platform where challenges and opportunities of disaster risk will be explored. The event will include presentations from specialists as well as opportunities for knowledge-sharing amongst high-level participants. 

The timely roundtable comes in the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda (international code name: Haiyan), the strongest storm in the world recorded this year which devastated towns in the Visayas region.

For over two decades, Asia accounts for half of the world's estimated economic losses to disasters. Most of these losses are borne by private companies and individuals. Especially for business persons, managing and protecting assets, operations and employees of an organization from disaster risks is an important challenge to address.

Cutting across industries and sectors, the Top Leader's Forum will address three key themes that are fundamental to the business environment companies are operating in: 

  1. Resilience rating systems for increased shareholder value; 
  2. Metrics to make resilience marketable; and 
  3. Sustainability reporting to communicate disaster risk management successes. 

The Top Leaders Forum will brief participants on how to capitalize on and optimize incentives for disaster resilient business practices. It will also provide participants the space to influence global policies and regulation for disaster risk reduction. The outcome will consist of practical solutions and identified opportunities for optimizing financial and sustainability incentives for resilient investment. 

Speakers for the forum include Mr. Hans Sy, SM Prime President; Ms. Margareta Walstrom, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction; Ms. Sandra Wu Wen Hsiu, Chairperson & CEO, Kokusai Kogyo Co., Ltd., Chair UNISDR Private Sector Advisory Group; Kevin Snowdon, Executive Director and Richard Sanders, Senior Catastrophe Risk Analyst, Willis Group; Karthik Subburaman, Country Manager ECCI Philippines and Senator Loren Legarda, Chair of Senate Committee on Environment who will give an inspirational message in the afternoon session.

The outcomes of the discussions will steer the 6th Asian Ministerial Meeting on Disaster Risk Reduction, taking place from 23 to 28 June 2014 in Bangkok, Thailand. This event is vital to the development of a new global framework for disaster risk reduction.

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For further information, please contact:

Ms. Liza Silerio

Vice President

Shopping Center Management Corporation

E-mail: liza.silerio@smsupermalls.com

Tel. no.: 831.1000  

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