Pakistan: Opportunities for Global Insurers

The incumbent government in Pakistan wishes to put the economy on track as well as accelerate pace of productive activities, construct mega size infrastructure projects and improve the quality of life of people, insurance companies will have to shoulder greater responsibilities. They have to come up with new products to cater to emerging needs. Over the last two decades new threats have emerged and hedging the risk has become the collective responsibility of all the stakeholders. The government being the largest stakeholder is responsible for paying compensation to the victims of various types of eventualities, i.e. act of terrorism, political violence and natural calamities. Three deluges, carnage and destruction on the eve of assignation of Benazir Bhutto and 2005 earthquake have shown that while economic losses ran into billions of rupees insurance claims were minuscule, simply because immovable and movable properties, government assets and even the lives of people were not adequately insured. In the prevailing scenario insurance will have to come up with new products to cater to emerging needs. This also offers opportunities to the global insurers to form joint ventures with Pakistani insurance companies to exploit a market that still suffers from very low insurance penetration. To read the details visit shkazmipk.com