Japan offers best disaster risk insurance platform

To assist in seamless transition to reconstruction and development, post any natural disaster, disaster risk insurance is one of the effective measures for the risk transfer, says Senior Vice-President of the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) Yasushi Kanzaki. Mr Kanzai made the comments at the HighLevel Pacific Island Dialogue on Building Resilience to Natural Disasters and Climate Change held at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva yesterday.

The dialogue is being facilitated by the Fijian Government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

He discussed how Japan was carrying out reconstruction work post natural disasters. Japan has historically been hit badly by earthquakes and tsunamis.

“Two months ago, IMF and JICA co-hosted an international conference with attendance of high-level officials from emerging and developing countries in Asia that discussed fiscal risks and fiscal management,” he said.

“It was highlighted during the discussion that economic loss from natural disasters can be substantial in developing countries, especially in the Asia-Pacific region.

“As an island country in the Pacific prone to natural disasters, Japan has led the international development co-operation in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) to share our knowledge and technologies,” he said. World Bank, ADB, SPC (Secretariat of the Pacific Community), funded by the Government of Japan and other partners, set up “Pacific Catastrophe Risk Assessment and Financial Initiative (PCRAFI) to provide the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) with disaster risk modelling and assessment tools.