Insurance penetration in Sri Lanka is less than 10%, according to AvivaNDB's Director of General Insurance Ainsley Alles. He also suggested that some companies were looking to micro insurance schemes to counter this lack of interest by local customers by offering better alternatives such as significantly lower prices. Also of the opinion that, except in the case of insurance necessary to operate motor vehicles, locals did not feel the need for insurance with many believing that nothing bad could ever happen to them; he further noted that, even at his own office, several staff did not have general insurance.
Making these comments at legal and policy think tank LIRNEasia's inaugural annual LIRNEasia Disaster Risk Reduction lecture held this week, Mr. Alles was joined by speakers including Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement General Secretary Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne and Department of Meteorology Deputy Director S.R. Jayasekera as well as LIRNEasia Chairman / Chief Executive Dr. Rohan Samarajiva.
Speaking about the 2010's June 10 tsunami watch notification affecting Sri Lanka, Dr. Ariyaratne noted that there was still a lot of confusion amongst the public from this recent announcement. He also indicated that the country's May 2010 floods in Hambantota received very little follow up attention after the waters receded. Meanwhile, Mr. Jayasekera revealed that his department regularly received upwards of 300 phone calls during situations such as the June 10 tsunami notification.
Further, according to Dr. Ariyaratne, while Asia experienced 40.3% of worldwide disasters in 2009; overall, this region was responsible for 89.1% of that year's disaster victims and 38.5% of the year’s total reported economic damage. |
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