Carlos G. Dominguez
Secretary of Finance
29th East Asian Insurance Congress (EAIC)
Marriot Grand Ballroom
May 7, 2018
On behalf of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, let me welcome you to the country and wish you a very satisfying and pleasant stay.
I am impressed you have chosen “Managing Disruption, Driving Change” as the theme of this conference. I spoke extensively about this last week in the ADB Annual Meeting. Everybody is concerned about the disruptions that are imminently upon us these days. Our region today finds itself, on the one hand, grappling with the withering pace of technology-driven change and, on the other hand, mastering technology to create rapid and inclusive growth for our people.
The new technologies that disrupt the old ways of doing things challenge regulators everywhere. Either we adapt our regulations quickly or court conflict between what technologies make possible and what regulators allow. We saw this, for instance, in the conflict between our public transport regulators and transport networks like Uber and Grab, which are very large transport companies which don’t even own a single vehicle.
The countries more nimble in reinventing regulations and moving quickly into e-governance will benefit most from the long wave of technology-driven change sweeping our countries.
At the cutting edge of new digital drivers of change is financial technology or Fintech. Fintech drastically shortens transaction time, allows interoperability between institutions, builds databases to better service clients and makes new financial products possible. With new technologies, we can make our financial services, including insurance, more accessible, more efficient and more innovative. In turn, these will lead to greater financial inclusion.
The insurance industry should be at the forefront and center of technological changes driving our economies. Insurance is among the most closely regulated as well as the most benefited by technological advance. The industry ought to explore new products that will not only mitigate risks for corporations but also mitigate risks for communities vulnerable to natural calamities.
The ASEAN countries are now negotiating a framework to enable our countries to mitigate risks arising from natural calamities heightened by climate change through innovative insurance coverage. This will help our communities become more resilient and improve the capacity of countries to recover from disasters. I encourage you to look into these initiatives and find ways for the insurance industry to participate. This is one area where business opportunities and social concerns converge quite nicely.
We should likewise look at the larger scale the changes happening in the region. These changes are radically altering the terrain for our governments and our enterprises to thrive in.
Asia is now the center of gravity of the global economy. The region is host to the fastest growing economies in the world. We have much headroom for economic expansion and a large market of consumers to support businesses. This is an exciting time for our region.
The Philippines is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. We aim to sustain that fast pace of growth well into the long term. We are making the adjustments and doing the reform necessary to achieve that. This is a good place for holding a conference as forward-looking as this one is.
Like the rest of the region, we are preparing to adapt to the changing technologies to the environment to prepare our governments and our business for the new economic realities we must deal with. We call this the 4th Industrial Revolution, and it is well on its way. This Revolution demands of us serious rethinking of how we do things, how we make products, how we create wealth for our people.
I look forward to reviewing the outcome of the discussions of this conference. I am sure it will be rich in insight and bold in foresight.
I wish you all a productive meeting and a pleasant stay in the country.
Thank you very much.
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