By Joann Santiago
MANILA, (PNA) — Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) is considering giving some US$ 500,000 up to US$ 1 million technical assistance grant to the Philippines to help establish a private sector-led earthquake insurance entity in the country.
ADB Country Director for the Philippines Neeraj Jain said they are in talks with the Insurance Commission (IC), the Department of Finance (DOF) and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), among others for this endeavor.
“We’re looking to increase the grant because we want to continue this dialogue, this analysis,” he said.
Jain said they are considering to follow the earthquake insurance system of Turkey, which was implemented after parts of the transcontinental country suffered from this natural calamity.
Aside from a private-led earthquake insurance entity, Jain said another option is to pool funds from both the public and private entities.
The ADB official said these options are still being studied with the goal of diversifying the risks.
He explained that an earthquake-related incident needs to be addressed immediately, thus, an insurance program for this needs to be able to disburse fund as soon as needed.
“Clearly it’s a different business model and a lot of work needs to be done to sort of make this happen,” he added.
The Philippines is among the countries that normally experience earthquakes because it is near the Pacific Ring of Fire.