Dr. Yoshihiro Kawai, SEADRIF Initiative Director and SEADRIF Insurance Company Board Chair, attended the 2nd ASEAN+3 Task Force Meeting, co-chaired by Malaysia and the People’s Republic of China (PRC), held from March 5-6, 2025, at the Xiamen National Accounting Institute, Xiamen, PRC. The meeting primarily focused on economic and financial cooperation among ASEAN member countries, plus PRC, Japan, and South Korea.
Disaster Risk Finance (DRF) was a key topic on the agenda. Representing SEADRIF, Dr. Kawai presented the implementation activities of SEADRIF, including updates on the Laos policy renewal and advisory services to the Philippines on public assets insurance. He also announced that the 7th SEADRIF Technical Meeting open to all ASEAN+3 DRF Initiative Members would be held in Singapore from March 24-25.
In his capacity as the ASEAN+3 DRF Initiative Secretary General, Dr. Kawai provided updates on the concept note and development roadmap for DRFI in the region. He reported on capacity-building activities, including various programs from the World Bank, a joint program between the Asian Development Bank Institute and Global Asia Insurance Partnership (GAIP) covering the protection gap, and the implementation of ASEAN Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Phase II.
Following that, Ms. Min Hung Cheng, Deputy CEO of GAIP, further introduced the Capacity Building for Risk Resilience program, organized by GAIP and ADBI, with a particular focus on the second module of the four-module program.
This meeting continued the discussions from the 1st ASEAN+3 Task Force Meeting held in January. The upcoming ASEAN+3 Task Force Meetings are scheduled to be held in Kuching, Sarawak, and Dalian.