The need for countries to work together to deal with catastrophic events

Gholamreza Soleimani, who spoke at the meeting of the heads of delegations, the deputy head of the ECO Economic Cooperation Organization and its members, added: “The geographical location of the ECO member countries.” , Is one of the most accident-prone areas in the world, so that every year we see the occurrence of events such as earthquakes, floods and… in the countries of the region, which causes a lot of human and financial losses in these areas.
He announced various UN programs to reduce the risk of international, regional and national crises and specified: Iran has also implemented several programs at the national level to reduce the risk of crisis and Central Insurance with extensive efforts to make arrangements Has implemented various in the field of crisis and catastrophic insurance.
The Chairman of the Supreme Insurance Council mentioned the increase of capacity, creation of new structures of reinsurance, approval of laws and regulations, change in existing structures, activation of start-ups and insurance companies, as well as establishment of risk management development center as development structures and added: The Iranian insurance market consists of 34 companies active in the field of life, non-life and reliance insurance, and the total production premium of this industry in 2020 was equal to 19.3 billion dollars and its compensation was equal to 11.8 billion dollars.
He mentioned the epidemic of Covid 19 virus and the flood of March 2019 in Iran as the two main challenges of the insurance industry in recent years and said: The insurance industry has performed well in this field, so that in Covid 19 disease, insurance claims were paid. Investors have been around $ 320 million. He added: “In the flood incident, all the damages to the basic infrastructure and residential houses were more than $ 3.4 billion, so that 163,697 units were damaged in the residential sector alone and 105,000 units were damaged.” $ 31 million was reimbursed through the insurance industry.
He pointed out that following this incident, the law establishing a public building insurance fund for natural disasters was approved by the Islamic Consultative Assembly in 2020.
He further assessed the complexity of crisis management issues and providing insurance solutions to conduct applied research and scientific research and update and said: “Accordingly, the Insurance Insurance Institute affiliated to the Central Insurance, to meet the research needs and development of applied science research In the insurance industry, it is fully prepared to set up a specialized desk for catastrophic accidents and large damages in a worthy move.
He expressed Iran’s willingness to cooperate in various fields, such as conducting insurance research and implementing practical proposals of international institutions, and expressed hope that by increasing insurance interactions and cooperation between ECO member countries can reduce the damage caused. Played remarkably in the region.
Following the meeting, the Chairman of the Board of the Natural Disaster Insurance Fund announced the stages of completing the process of forming and launching this complex and said: “The potential losses are more than the Fund can absorb it with its financial resources and be able to achieve Be your goals.
According to this report, Reza Kazemi Taklimi, explaining the law establishing a public building insurance fund for natural disasters, stated: The issue of risk transfer in this law at three levels: “regulatory system”, “risk transfer of the fund in the form of laws” and “agreements” Between the organization and the insurance policies.
In the end, he stressed the need for international dialogue, transfer of experiences and private sector cooperation for sustainable development.
Also, Ismail Najjar, Head of the Crisis Management Organization, said at the meeting: “Countries in the ECO region have long witnessed the occurrence of various natural hazards due to location and weather conditions, and due to high vulnerabilities, suffered damages after accidents.” There are many financial losses and casualties.
He added: “Sometimes the amount of material damage is several times more than the pre-planned development and development budgets, and new measures must be taken in this regard.”
Pointing out that insurance is one of the effective solutions in crisis management, Najjar said: “Unfortunately, this issue has not been properly implemented in the countries of the region and according to statistics in developed countries, more than 50% of damages are compensated by insurance.”
He noted: “Considering the importance of insurance, Iran in recent years has taken a series of measures to use this efficient tool, one of which is the development and approval of laws and upstream documents.”
Explaining these measures, Najjar stated: 90% of the insurance premium is provided by the government, and in the following years, the government’s share will gradually decrease and the people’s share will increase.
Najjar considered the property insurance of government agencies as another important measure in the field of risk management and said: “In our country, the executive agencies annually reduce government expenditures in order to compensate for damages caused by natural hazards by allocating a percentage of resources at their disposal.” They insure their movable and immovable property.
Mohammad Ebrahim Hassannejad, Deputy Chairman of the Agricultural Insurance Fund, referring to the role of the Fund in supporting the agricultural sector, said: “Activities in the agricultural sector due to its high reliance on nature and its dependence on factors and Climatic and environmental conditions are a risky activity and the producers of this sector are always faced with damages caused by forced accidents and natural disasters.
He added: “Therefore, the survival and durability of production activities in this sector needs new support from producers and investors, in which agricultural insurance as a useful and appropriate solution to deal with these risks is always considered and Has been an emphasis.
In another part of his speech, the Deputy Director of the Agricultural Insurance Fund proposed holding a webinar entitled “Agricultural Insurance in Iran, Experiences and Achievements”.
It is worth mentioning proposals such as: development of joint programs to benefit from the capacity of reinsurance, launching and establishing Eco reinsurance company in cooperation with the Secretariat and other member countries, holding joint training courses and knowledge exchange, as well as conducting joint insurance research, especially in The field of catastrophic events and natural disasters is one of the most important topics of this summit.