Finance
Minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel on Thursday said that insurance service was still
out of reach of many people in the country due to the lack of public awareness
regarding the importance of insurance services.
Inaugurating
3rd South Asian Insurance Regulators' Meet and International
Insurance Convention 2016 in the capital, Minister Poudel stressed on
organizing public awareness campaign for the expansion of insurance service to
the access of common people.
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| Finance Minister Bisnhu Prasad Poudel |
He
said that it was a high time to expand influence of insurance sector and urged the
concerned authorities and stakeholders to come with innovative ideas and
programmes.
Minister
Poudel said that the government started insurance programme in agriculture and
livestock to expand the insurance sector to the access of farmers. "The
government is committed to developing necessary infrastructure and policies
required to grow the insurance business."
He
said that the government was supportive for the expansion of insurance service
so as to assure the access of all people in the service.
Chairman
of Bima Samiti Dr. Fatta Bahadur KC said that the convention would be a
platform to share experiences of different countries on insurance sector.
He
stated that the major challenges of the Nepalese insurance industry were
penetration and inclusiveness of the people at large.
According
to Dr. KC, primary obstacles in the development process of insurance were lack
of awareness as well as non-affordability of paying premiums.
"Execution
of various social security related mandatory insurance schemes and provision of
subsidy for initial period will assist in creating awareness, and thereby
increase penetration," he said.
However,
Dr. KC maintained that despite the topographic and geological constraints,
Beema Samiti was encouraging the insurers to cover the larger portion of
population through micro-insurance, and through the mainstream agriculture,
life and health insurances.
"The
insurance industry has recently expanded its coverage in more remote parts of
the country, though there is a need for many more actions to be performed to
bolster the industry," he said.
Bijaya
Bahadur Shah, president of the Nepal Insurers Association (NIA) said that the
devastating earthquake in April and May last year had made the Nepalese
insurance industry more confident. "The industry has settled about 93 per
cent of the claims made for the damaged caused by the quake within a
year," he informed.
He
stated that the Nepalese insurance sector was witnessing growth of 20 per cent
per annum.
Arup
Chatterjee, principal financial sector specialist of the Asian Development Bank
(ADB), emphasized the regional cooperation among the regulators and insurers
was needed and such cooperation should be for innovation, inclusion and
integration.
On
the occasion, chief of the regulatory authorities of insurance sector of other
South Asian countries also spoke on the expansion of insurance business and its
contemporary challenges.
Deliberations
were held on the issues like role of regulatory frameworks to increase
insurance outreach, disaster management, inclusive insurance market and
agricultural insurance.
Various
experts from Nepal, India, Pakistan, Philippines and Bangladesh, and
representatives from the ADB, German Cooperation and various reinsurance
companies discussed issues pertinent to the Nepalese and the South Asian
insurance market.
Regulators' Meet
Meanwhile,
the 3rd South Asian Insurance Regulators Meet in the morning
Thursday decided to hold the next year's meet in India.
Incumbent
chairman of the Regulators Forum, Fida Hussain Samoo, commissioner of Security
and Exchange Commission of Pakistan handed over the chairmanship to Prof. Dr.
Fatta Bahadur KC, chairman of the Beema Samiti.
The
meet also agreed on to create an information sharing platform where information
could be shared at the regional level.
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