APEC experts debate disaster risk financing, insurance policies

Addressing the event, part of the APEC 2017 activities, Nguyen Viet Loi, head of the National Institute for Finance under the Ministry of Finance, noted that Asia-Pacific is among most vulnerable regions to natural disasters.

Between 2005 and 2014, the region suffered from 1,625 natural disasters or 40% of total disasters in the globe, killing nearly 500,000 people and affecting 1.4 billion others, accounting for 80% of affected people around the world, said Loi.

He highlighted that property losses in the 10-year period amounted to US$520 billion, equivalent to 45% of total global economic losses caused by natural disasters.

Vietnam has also been seriously hit by the disasters, which each year kill about 750 people and cause an economic loss of about 1% of the country’s GDP.

Participants discussed the disaster risk financing and insurance initiative implemented in the APEC over the past years, as well as national financial strategies in response to natural disaster risks and the development of database on public property and disaster risk insurance.

At the same time, they also sought ways to increase experience sharing in building natural disaster risk financing and insurance solutions, improving capacity in dealing with disaster consequences and reducing budget spending burdens and risks to State property.

The seminar looked towards the building of a programme on natural risk financing solutions and disaster assessment models to support APEC member economies in developing their new solution systems on risk management and transfer.

A report on the event’s outcomes will be submitted to the APEC Finance and Central Bank Deputies’ Meeting slated for February 23-24 in Nha Trang.