On a sweltering morning last month, I accompanied a group of AmCham staff and members to observe Yilan County’s whole-of-society resilience drills, which took place alongside the annual Han Kuang military exercise. The experience was a stark example of just how much progress this truly enormous initiative has made under the current administration.

What did we learn? The key takeaway is that these drills are no longer just about providing support for Taiwan’s population in the wake of natural disasters like earthquakes or typhoons — events that are mostly limited to a concentrated area — but are now geared toward preparing for an incident that could affect the whole country. Our time in Yilan showed us just what that entails.

As we made our way from simulation to simulation along this scenic stretch of Taiwan’s east coast, we witnessed how Yilan and cities and counties across the island are putting the infrastructure in place to respond to a national emergency — everything from moving entire hospital operations underground to setting up emergency triage stations and supplying the public with food essentials in case of a disruption.

The police and military played key roles in these drills, helping manage the local population. Dozens of citizen volunteers also took part, performing as injured patients and impacted families — a chance to get involved but also to learn about how this whole-of-society effort works in practice.

The topic of resilience did not go away after the drills were over. It’s stayed at the forefront of discussions among our members, whose companies are constantly thinking about how to handle things like business continuity whenever disaster strikes.

This affects different members in various ways. For our healthcare-related committees, pharmaceutical and medical-supply resilience is a key concern, something highlighted by Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Lin Ching-yi at this year’s U.S.-Taiwan Patient Care Innovation Forum. She noted that the government is working on plans to manufacture and stockpile raw materials so that people can get the medicine and treatments they need, even in emergency situations.

AmCham has also been thinking hard about how to incorporate the lessons we’ve learned over the past two years — everything from the Yilan drills to our exchanges with AmCham Ukraine and AmCham Finland last spring.

As the largest and most influential foreign business organization in Taiwan, with a strong sense of community service and social responsibility, we are looking at how we can better support our members in the future, especially the ones who do not have the scale to build a team.

It’s that spirit that drives us forward in our mission to serve our members and to play a key role in Taiwanese life and society. As Forward Alliance Founder Enoch Wu said in August at the first public luncheon held by AmCham’s new Strategic Resilience Council, “resilience is about protecting your people.”

For 75 years, the Chamber has strived to do that, and we will maintain our efforts to build a stronger, more secure, and more resilient international business community in the future.