Central bank opens back up site

The Reserve Bank of Fiji today opened a Business Resumption Site (BRS) that will ensure the central bank’s critical operations can continue unabated under worst case scenarios such as a disaster or disruption to infrastructure.

The building would play a critical role in the RBF’s overall risk management strategies said governor Sada Reddy.

“It will ensure our ability to sustain critical business and information technology functions should access to the RBF building in downtown Suva be lost due to any form of disaster or disruption of essential infrastructure,” Reddy said.

“We clearly understand that a central bank has a unique position within a country and consequences of business continuity failure are unacceptable.”

Located at Princes Road, the building is designed to withstand the most severe cyclones and earthquakes and has been equipped with “very high level security controls”.

Cameras were not allowed at today’s opening.

The building houses a highly secure data centre and is capable of restoring the RBF’s IT services “within a very short timeframe”.

There is a work area for up to 10 staff, a meeting room, an office and accommodation for a few staff apart from the RBF’s first fully-fledged archives.

The site has a fibre link to the RBF building in Suva “allowing for a fast and reliable flow of data”.

Reddy said the RBF had worked on a risk management structure since 2004, commenced planning the construction of the site in October 2006 and visited Australia’s BRS in 2007 to gather information on their experience.

The land was bought from the Fiji Red Cross Society in March 1999.

By Richard Naidu