KATHMANDU: Business leaders and corporate groups have stressed on the need for strategic risk reduction planning in order to cope with future disasters, minimise business loss, and keep the industries functioning in disaster situations.

In a meeting with Nepali industrialists today, international experts shared ways to ensure industry safety at times of disasters.

“Understanding disaster risks and proper strategic planning is crucial to ensure that we minimise losses and revive our industries immediately after disaster situations,” a media release issued today quotes Nirvana Chaudhary, vice chairman of Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) and managing director of Chaudhary Group, as saying.

In an interactive workshop titled ‘Business Interruption Loss Control Programme’, organised here on Monday by the CNI and facilitated by the Chaudhary Foundation, experts from renowned American firm Miyamoto discussed with Nepali business leaders and industrialists best practices from across the world to minimise industry risk.

Miyamoto has recently successfully completed the retrofitting works at the corporate house of Chaudhary Group situated at Sanepa in Kathmandu Valley.

“We should all think about safeguarding our businesses by adopting safe practices which might be quite simple and inexpensive if managed properly,” V Gopalan, principal of Miyamoto, said.

More than 30 of Nepal’s top industrialists, members of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, CNI, and heads of Nepali corporate groups, and representatives from various multinationals participated in the one-day workshop.

The participants discussed business interruption control, earthquake risk reduction strategy, market share loss mitigation, and case studies of successful loss reduction in the workshop.

The event signified initiatives of private sector development under Chaudhary Foundation’s corporate social responsibility programmes, the release adds.