Good morning ladies and gentlemen, it is indeed a real privilege to be invited to speak at this event. The first time I came to Uzbekistan was nearly 20 years ago when I met with my colleague Oybek Khalilov and now 20 years later he is CEO of our newly launched Company Azimuth Insurance Coy. I was so impressed with what I saw in Tashkent and also developed a love for Plov, but now after 20 years later it is incredible to see the progress that has been made in such a short period of time and I congratulate you on what has been achieved by your government in the last 20 years. You should be very proud.
The subject of my talk today is ‘Why Insurance Matters’. It is fair to say that in my nearly 50 years in the industry working across 36 countries going as far back as 1975 where I started my International career in Iran and finally ending up as Regional CEO Middle East for Zurich Insurance following C suite roles in Asia, Europe, Central Europe, Australasia, India, Middle East and of course UK, I would like to think I have seen most types of losses ranging from simple car accidents to natural catastrophes such as floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, and even acts of terrorism like the Taj Hotel in Mumbai. It is this I would like to concentrate on today. Many years ago when I first went to China several of my colleagues there said to me ‘look Brian you will find things very different here because people are not that concerned about buying insurance’. I listened to him calmly and carefully and just asked the following question ‘OK so are you telling me that the people of China are not concerned about the health of their family? …Not concerned about the small business they have built up being lost or damaged by fire or flood?…Not concerned about the education of their children and the health of their parents and grandparents if they are not around?…Not concerned about providing cover for the car they have saved up for is stolen or damaged?…. if the answer to all that is no then you are quite right the people in China are very different and they don’t need insurance.
I’m sure you see where this is going because the fact is that no matter where you are in the world people do care about these things no matter what stage of a country’s development is at, they do still care about these things. The challenge lies with the insurance industry in getting the message out to the people and businesses, large and small, that there is a way to prevent or mitigate losses like these. Even leaving aside the fact that we have continuing discussions about global warming and whether you believe this to be true or not, the fact is we do appear to be experiencing extreme weather changes. In fact at the weekend my home country of Scotland was hit by three earthquakes measuring 3.4 on the Richter scale. Unheard of in the past. In recent years we have seen extensive flooding across UK and Europe, hurricanes, typhoons and even droughts causing catastrophic damage. Whilst in some cases governments do step in to provide support the hard facts are the majority of these losses and the reparations are covered by insurance. The markets of London, Paris, Frankfurt, Zurich New York and Bermuda are generally the major providers of primary and re insurance cover. So weather it be coverage for accidental damage to your small Kia motor car, a natural catastrophe, the health of your child, your own health or supporting your business following a fire, theft or an earthquake the insurance company is there to help!! Many years ago when I was a child in the UK there used to be an advert constantly on the television showing medieval castle with the ‘voice over’ saying ‘get the strength of the insurance company around you’…that message was valid then in the 50’s and 60’s and is still valid now in any country.
But how do we get that message out to companies, small businesses and to the general public? In all my travels I have found a combination of good regulation, education, advertising, marketing and multiple distribution sources wether that be direct communications, banks, agencies or brokerages the more they are talked about the more the message gets out there. Regulators have a key role to play by insisting on certain mandatory insurance products to raise general awareness and also ensuring level playing fields to ensure the message gets through that insurance is a good thing. In some countries that I have worked in there was a fear of greater regulation when it was introduced, this was natural but after the benefits were understood by all it does benefit everyone…it benefited the private and public companies the insurance companies and benefited the public. The developments in Uzbekistan since 2016 and the reforms announced in 2019 which were aimed at strengthening the role of the insurance sector are hugely welcomed and a great step forward.
This is one of the key reasons we have decided to invest and launch our new company Azimuth Insurance Company as we believe the time is now ripe for rapid development of the insurance sector in Uzbekistan.. I was also delighted to see that the New Law on insurance activity launched just recently is aligned with regulating insurance activities and introducing international experience. I believe that the board of of Azimuth insurance company which is made up of international financial, private equity and insurance experts based in London can provide the required level governance and expertise to help grow the market. We can also provide coverage for the most simple to complex risks and the local team with an average insurance experience of over 20 years led by CEO Oybek Khalilov who is a recognized international insurance expert with over 30 years experience in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Mongolia and London markets we are well positioned to help grow the Uzbek market. We are financially strong which enables us to take risks up to 36 million U.S. dollars with the possibility of increasing our capacity to $200 million. Our treaty reinsurers have a financial strength rating of A plus and this enables us to look at risks ranging from financial lines to large and complex construction projects, major industrial enterprises including energy oil and gas sectors together with basic retail insurance products for the general public such as health, motor and similar.
It has been an immense pleasure to come back to Uzbekistan after all those years and I do hope to be coming back on a more regular basis as our business grows and expands under the leadership of Oybek. As you can probably tell, even after nearly 50 years in the industry I’m still incredibly passionate and believe in what we do and I do hope that you give us the opportunity to be a bigger player in this wonderful market.