June will be a short month with Ramadan and the summer holidays coinciding. So the rush is on to get as much done as possible before the long break.
In June, the biggest event for the global insurance industry is the Global Insurance Forum, formerly known as the IIS Annual Seminar, with the theme of “Filling the Protection Gap”, looking at it from all angles including environment, climate change and extreme events, microinsurance, pensions, healthcare and public-private partnerships. This year, it will be held in New York and is going to draw a handful of visionary leaders from the Middle East.
Another salutary high for the industry is that 11 insurance CEOs have made it to the top 100 leaders in the GCC region – a figure not to be scoffed at bearing in mind the light weight of insurance in the GDP. We proudly bring you the names of the 11 in a survey of public-listed bodies in the GCC.
Our Cover Story this month is on the dynamic healthcare sector which in the region is becoming almost as big as motor insurance, with the uptake of compulsory insurance. We look at controlling fraud as a key issue while highlighting the move towards a universal healthcare system to ensure the most efficient use of resources to achieve quality healthcare for all.
Our Country Profile after a long pause is on Turkey, a market that is fighting back with profitability despite shrinking premium income last year. Turkey is rising in the insurance space with a rosy outlook. We even bring you a perspective on takaful in Turkey which is still nascent.
We also bring you coverage on agriculture where there is a wake-up call to use insurance to raise productivity of the farmers, and on pensions which will reach US$5 trillion in assets in five years’ time, given its rapid pace of growth. But are there skills to manage the funds for a higher purpose? Watch out too for articles on pandemic risk whose impact on insurance has still been meagre, and on investments where we spell out a more opportunistic approach.
Our Takaful spread is on the global market where there is a need for a “rejig” to recreate the momentum and passion. But with London getting into the game, the time may just be right. However, takaful must show its relevance and unique selling point against the established conventional players, and cannot presume that because there are Muslims in the world, there is always guaranteed demand for takaful. Overcoming this mindset seems to be no mean feat.
With June, there is a rush of nominations for the 2nd Middle East Insurance Industry Awards. The Awards have gotten a life of their own given the pedigree associated with it: supported by DIFC and GAIF, and independently audited by EY, with a panel of 29 esteemed judges. The closing date for entries is 15 June. But the nominations show that many of the companies and professionals are still very proud of what they are doing in the industry. It is a good sign and this year we are also extending the search to users of insurance from the risk management community.
In June, it is time to revisit expectations and budgets set for the year to recharge your operations to get back on target. The road is long and fraught with geopolitical uncertainties spilling into the economic sphere. There is even a big bet on for just the direction of oil price changes.
I take this opportunity to wish all of you a great start to summer and to our Muslim readers “Ramadan Mubarak”.
Sivam Subramaniam
Editor-in-Chief, Middle East Insurance Review