APEC meeting tackles disaster insurance

Delegates from 21 nations discuss how to improve disaster insurance in the world’s most at-risk region

APEC meeting tackles disaster insurance

Insurance News

By Gabriel Olano

Over 100 representatives from 21 member nations of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and several experts from international financial bodies gathered to attend a seminar on disaster risk financing and insurance policies in Nha Trang, Vietnam on Tuesday.
 
Nguyen Viet Loi, head of the National Institute for Finance under the Ministry of Finance, said that Asia-Pacific is one of the most vulnerable to natural disasters. From 2005 to 2014, a total of 1,625 natural disasters, or 40% of the total global number, struck the region, causing almost 500,000 fatalities and affecting 1.4 billion lives.

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Loi also added that during that period, property losses reached US$520 billion, or 45% of total global economic losses due to disasters.
 
The participants talked about the disaster risk financing and insurance measures implemented in the economic bloc, as well as various national financial strategies that respond to natural disaster risks and the development of databases documenting public property and disaster risk insurance.
 
Representatives also looked for ways to increase sharing of information in creating natural disaster risk financing and insurance solutions, increasing capacity to deal with consequences of disasters and minimizing spending burdens and risks to government property.
 
The seminar’s results will be forwarded to the APEC Finance and Central Bank Deputies Meeting scheduled for February 23 and 24 in Nha Trang.

 
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