JICA to provide technical support to GSIS for public asset insurance

THE JAPAN International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will provide technical support to strengthen the Government Service Insurance System’s (GSIS) ability to protect public assets against natural disasters.

The JICA signed a record of discussions with the Philippine government on Nov. 22 for the technical cooperation project, it said in a statement.

“In the Philippines, where the risk of natural disasters is high, this project aims to comprehensively and adequately insure public assets under the GSIS against such disasters,” JICA said.

“In light of this situation, this project aims to promote the comprehensive and adequate insurance of public assets in the Philippines, doing so by strengthening the insurance underwriting and management capacity of the Government Service Insurance System — the country’s public insurance underwriter for public assets,” it said.

In particular, the project is targeting to enhance the GSIS’ ability to “evaluate appropriate replacement costs; calculate risk-based insurance premium rates; underwrite, control loss, and manage and procure insurance, thereby contributing to the enhancement of the financial resilience of public assets against natural disasters.”

It also seeks to promote awareness of public insurance services.

The project will be implemented over a three-year period.

A report by the World Bank showed that the Philippines is expected to incur $3.5 billion in asset losses annually due to typhoons and earthquakes.

“The Philippines has one of the highest frequencies of exposure to natural disasters among Southeast Asian countries,” JICA said.

“Although it has suffered a total loss of approximately $23 billion due to the natural disasters that have occurred since 1990, it has not been able to build sufficient financial mechanisms to support the improvement of public infrastructure’s resilience against such disasters, and securing funds for recovery in the event of a disaster has always been an issue,” it added.

GSIS saw its net income more than double in the first 10 months, driven by higher earnings from financial assets, it said earlier this week.

The pension fund’s net income rose by 117% year on year to P80 billion at end-October from P37 billion in the same period last year. This made up 66.67% of its P120-billion net income target for 2023.

The profit surge came amid a 344% jump in income from financial assets to P29 billion. — L.M.J.C. Jocson