That is the topic of the seminar organized by Insurance Supervisory Authority (Ministry of Finance), Vietnam National Reinsurance Corporation (VINARE) and Global Partnership of Swiss Re on 20^th March, 2013 at the Ministry of Finance’s Head quarter. Participants in this seminar are representatives from Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Central Economic Committee, Swiss Cooperation Office in Vietnam and other departments of the Ministry of Finance. This seminar has also attracted attention from some news agencies in the financial industry and other industries.

In his opening speech at the seminar, Mr. Phung Ngoc Khanh, Deputy Manager of Insurance Supervisory Authority, addressed that climate change is currently the top concern for all countries. Natural disasters (storm, flood, earthquake, etc) have caused big losses to many countries and seriously affect production, business and people’s lives. Vietnam has suffered heavily from natural disasters and every year, the government has to spend a large amount of State budget to help people and provinces affected by natural disasters. Therefore, this seminar aims to exchange, discuss on and develop financing solutions for sovereign disaster risk.

Mr. Martyn Parker, Chairman of Swiss Re Global Partnerships introduced Swiss Re and their contribution to managing risk; disaster risk financing from a policy and economic perspective. These topics have attracted interests from participants. As he said, pre-event risk financing will increase investment from both companies as well as individuals. For low frequency, high severity events, risk transfer is the most economic option to minimize residual risk. Insurance will reduce total risks by providing price signals, he shared.

In this seminar, Mr. Ivo Menzinger and Mr. Pham Xuan Thai, members of Swiss Re Global partnerships, presented on The reality: huge gap between economic and insured losses; Micro disaster risk financing; Insurance schemes and pools. Mr. Pham Xuan Thai shared some case studies of natural catastrophes which caused severe losses in some countries in recent years. However, with participation in sustainable natural catastrophe insurance scheme, enterprises as well as individuals will benefit from this.

 According to representatives from Vietnam National Reinsurance Corporation (VINARE), in 2013, VINARE will cooperate with relevant authorities of Ministry of Finance, local and international insurance market to develop solutions for regulatory framework and to build a natural catastrophe protection for Vietnam by learning from experience of the regional market.

At the seminar, representatives have contributed their inputs, shared and exchanges experience from insurance schemes of some countries in the region and the world. One of some notable opinions was: to develop sustainable Vietnam as well as other countries’ insurance market, natural catastrophes insurance should be separated from other traditional insurance products so that it will not affect the insurance scheme.

In his closing address, Mr. Phung Ngoc Khanh highly appreciated support from partners such as Swiss Re Group and VINARE in terms of technical aspect as well as the development of natural catastrophe insurance pool in the near future. He also stressed some issues that need to be done such as: Evaluate flood and storm losses by areas; identify damaged property and objects to find appropriate solutions; Vary insurance solutions in many aspects such as: fiscal, financial, tax policies, etc; Pay attention to communication activities for enterprises and people to understand the insurance scheme and participate voluntarily.

Swiss Re is a leading reinsurer in the world. They provide reinsurance solutions for non-life and life insurers, governments and non-governmental organizations worldwide. Swiss Re has been actively cooperating with VINARE in introducing and deploying solutions for natural catastrophe insurance in Vietnam. This solution is very effective in helping to reduce burden on state budget when natural catastrophes occur and stabilize business activities which contributes to sustainable and stable development of Vietnam economy.

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