South Korea: Most traditional market shops lack fire insurance
Source: Asia Insurance Review | Mar 2017
Only a quarter of shops at traditional markets across South Korea are insured against fire as petty merchants are reluctant to pay premiums amid a protracted economic slowdown, a survey has shown.
Only 26.6% of 35,000 stores in 1,439 traditional markets are covered by fire insurance as at the end of 2015, according to the survey conducted by the state-run Small Enterprise and Market Service. The results, released recently, showed that that the coverage was 37.2% in 2013 and 22.2% in 2014, reported Yonhap News Agency.
By region, Gyeonggi Province had the highest coverage rate at 51.4%, followed by Daejeon City at 48.5%, South Chungcheong Province at 42.8% and Gangwon Province at 39.4%.
Jeju Province had the lowest rate of 0.3% with Sejong City the second lowest at 9.7%.
The low insurance take-up rate is attributed to shopowners finding insurance premiums to be a burden amid the slumping economy.
“The insurance coverage rate differs greatly in accordance with the economic situation,” said an official of the state-run agency.
Traditional markets are susceptible to fire as they usually accommodate cloth and plastic product dealers in large numbers and are not equipped with up-to-date electricity or gas amenities.