Indonesia: Government launches national disaster risk financing strategy
Source: Asia Insurance Review | Nov 2018
Indonesia has launched a new strategy to fund disaster recovery, which includes selling catastrophe bonds and insuring state assets against major disasters.
The launch of the National Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Strategy took place during the 2018 International Monetary Fund-World Bank Annual Meetings in Bali in October in which Indonesia focused on discussions on disaster insurance and financing.
Finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati told reporters, “We want to expand our financial instruments so that we can cover the myriad of risks our society faces.”
The World Bank is supporting disaster-prone countries such as Indonesia to develop financial protection strategies, so they can respond more quickly to Nat CAT.
Finance Ministry head of the fiscal policy office Suahasil Nazara said under the new strategy, starting next year, the central government would create a disaster risk financing instrument, which local governments can draw upon if their budgets are wiped out because of a natural catastrophe, he said. A