The Fijian Government has launched a new initiative to develop finance and insurance products that are tailor‑made to the needs and circumstances of vulnerable and low‑income households in Fiji and other Pacific Island Countries.
The Government of Luxembourg will provide initial funding of 1 million euros for the initiative.
The Pacific Climate Finance and Insurance Incubator which is known as the Drua Incubator, will bring together leaders in finance, investment and insurance to develop and incubate transformational and scalable financial and insurance products that meet the specific requirements of Small Pacific Island Developing States.
Attorney‑General and Minister responsible for climate change Aiyaz Sayed‑Khaiyum, says that the incubator will look for ways to increase the flow of climate finance into Fiji and to make climate‑related insurance more affordable.
Sayed-Khaiyum says there is a need for fresh thinking to find solutions that are sustainable and to be sustainable these solutions must bring in the private sector.
He says in terms of insurance, in Fiji, as elsewhere in the Pacific, currently many of the existing products have such stringent compliance requirements that they are simply too expensive for ordinary people.
Sayed-Khaiyum says the Drua Incubator will allow to develop new solutions to increase access to affordable climate change insurance for Pacific Island Countries and communities.
The Attorney General says as an example of such a project, government, recently launched the region’s first and the world’s third sovereign Green Bond, which in the short time since its launch has already received overwhelming interest from both domestic and international investors.
The incubator will also support the work the Government is doing to develop crop insurance in Fiji.
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