RIYADH: The fifth Saudi Insurance Symposium got underway at the King Fahd Cultural Center in Riyadh on Wednesday morning, running on the theme “Insurance: Protection and Sustainability.”
The symposium, building on the successes of its previous editions and run by the General Committee of Insurance Companies, will host more than a thousand guests, including specialists, insurance executives and administrators from local and international organizations.
The event is being chaired by Dr. Ahmed Abdulkarim Al-Kholaifi, the governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA), who briefed attendees during the opening session on the evolution and growth of the insurance industry in the Kingdom. He noted that net profits had reached SR 36 billion ($9.6 billion) in the Saudi insurance industry since SAMA’s introduction of its most recent round of regulations, and that the number of people employed in the business, meanwhile, had risen to over 11,000 employees.
One of the most important challenges facing the sector, he noted in his address, was weak global confidence in local corporate performance as a result of historical reputations, and he urged companies in attendance to raise awareness about the importance of a professional culture among their employees and clients.
He made this observation at a panel talk alongside the chairman of the General Insurance Committee, Abdul Aziz Al-Sudais, and the chairman of the Executive Committee of Insurance Companies, Bassem Oudah.
He also touched upon the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 Program, saying: “We hope that the insurance sector meets the aspirations (of Vision 2030) by promoting a culture of risk management, raising awareness of the necessity of insurance for development and growth, and by boosting the sector’s contribution to GDP, which currently stands at 1.5 percent.”
Al-Kholaifi revealed that SAMA would soon launch a “reconciliation center to mediate between clients and insurance companies” that would deal with solving complaints regarding vehicle insurance disputes worth under SR 50,000.