Cook Islands, 24 March 2023: This afternoon, the Fijian Government Assistant Minister at the Office of the Prime Minister, Hon. Sakiusa Tubuna, met the Management Team of the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Insurance Company (PCRIC).
This meeting was part of building the strong momentum established earlier in the year, when the team had also met with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Hon. Biman Prasad.
Held as a courteous gesture to brief the Hon. Assistant Minister on PCRIC’s role and services provided to the Pacific region, the key aspect of their discussions was a focus on the suite of parametric insurance products offered by PCRIC, including Tropical Cyclone and Excess Rainfall products, for which Fiji would be the primary beneficiary.
PCRIC was established by the Pacific Islands Finance Ministers in 2016 to enable a home-grown regional facility ready to assist affected countries with quick liquid funding that enable governments to provide immediate relief in the aftermath of a natural disaster without compromising other financial priorities.
In his remarks, the Hon. Assistant Minister acknowledged PCRIC’s services to the region and highlighted that ‘resilience and adaptation building’ is an integral policy priority of the Fijian Government.
The Hon. Assistant Minister also spoke encouragingly towards subsidised donor-partner assistance of premium support for Fiji.
Given that PCRIC aligns Fiji’s risk profile with well-established yet tailor-made disaster risk products, it will surely be a worthwhile investment for the Fijian Government to pursue this initiative through the upcoming National Budget.
The PCRIC team is excited to work alongside Fijian authorities in collaborating together on a finalisation of this insurance proposal.
For more information, please contact: ceo@pcric.org or aholotupalu@yahoo.co.uk
