CAIRO: The future of Egypt's insurance industry comes into focus today at the second annual Euromoney Egypt Insurance Conference. Organized by the Insurance Federation of Egypt and Euromoney, the conference titled “Enabling Egypt's Citizens to Secure their Future: Developing the Insurance Sector” will discuss the conditions and prospects for insurance in Egypt. The conference organizers have identified their goals as: bolstering the insurance industry, enhancing awareness of the government's insurance policies, and improving the government's response to the needs of the industry. In addition, promoting the use of insurance, a sector long associated with the moniker “under-developed,” will be addressed by the industry's major players and government officials to meet “international best-practice” standards. The industry's first Euromoney conference, held last year, occurred under the pall of the financial crisis. This year the conference opens with a discussion, led by the Egyptian Financial Services Authority (EFSA), regarding the recent legislation, Act. No. 10 of 2009, to regulate non-banking financial services. Other regulatory bodies, including the hosting Insurance Federation of Egypt and the Egyptian Insurance Supervisory Authority (EISA) will mingle with representatives from the industry's major players — Misr Insurance, the National Life Insurance Company — as well as various banks. Commentary from the head of the EFSA, Ziad Bahaa El-Din, Minister of State for Administrative Development Ahmed Darwish, Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieldin, and Minister of Finance Youssef Boutros-Ghali will focus on the effect of the new legislation. Last year sought to “discuss the importance of the insurance market within the wider economy,” while this year takes place under the shadow of the new law and specifically its implications on the micro-finance sector; the law allows companies other than banks and NGO's to participate in micro-financial services. Pending health care reform has generated recent headlines as the People's Assembly debates allegations of abuse of the statement in Egypt's National Charter, guaranteeing "the right of health welfare is foremost among the rights of every citizen” since 1962. Egyptian hospitals have refused to treat citizens until the Ministry of Health repays them for the free care they distribute. Currently only 53 percent of Egyptians have health insurance and only 2 million people benefit from the government's free health care option. Last week the World Bank signed a loan agreement for $75 million to finance Egypt's health insurance system, according to MENA. “The funding aims to improve the health insurance process and to attain the financial sustainability of the process through setting up an efficient and active health insurance system,” MENA quoted the Egyptian Minister of Health as saying. Regarding health insurance for Egyptians, Hamdy El-Sayyed, the head of the Doctor's Syndicate and head of the People's Assembly's health committee, said, “We are fighting for [health insurance], and making effort to build support for its approval. But obviously the government is having difficulties in financing the project.” El-Sayyed explained,”[The government] will solve [funding constraints] by having new taxation on various activities so that they can release the required funds. They just haven't made up their minds yet [on specific details]. But we are discussing it with the Minister of Finance.”
