Synopsis

The Institute of Catastrophe Risk Management (ICRM) was launched by the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, in January 2010 with a vision to become Asia’s leading research institute in catastrophe risk modelling and management. ICRM has conducted seven annual international symposia on important topics including public-private partnership in managing catastrophe events, food and water security and climate change, black swan events, extreme events in Asia Pacific, financing natural catastrophes in Asia, mega-cities of Asia and their evolving risks, and most recently plugging the natural catastrophe data gap in Southeast Asia through the Natural Catastrophe Data Analytics Exchange (NatCatDAX) initiative.

This Eighth ICRM International Symposium will build on the insights and conclusions from the Seventh Symposium in 2016. One of the conclusions from that symposium was that robust data about the assets exposed to natural catastrophes (NatCat’s) in Asia and in particular Southeast Asia will be very useful. The public sector (the governments) and the private sector (the re/insurance industry) need such data in their efforts to find sustainable solutions, as well as to build viable partnerships in managing the NatCat risk. Both need quality data across their respective enterprises. Governments need data to understand and relate to their NatCat risk policies, including transfer solutions through re/insurance as shock absorber for the fiscal burden of NatCat’s. The Industry needs robust, objective and independent data to offer innovative products (loss based and parametric) to traditional markets, open new markets with the governments, enhance risk assessment, and be able to carry out reliable benchmarking against the market.

Following on these conclusions a regional data platform Natural Catastrophe Data Analytics Exchange – NatCatDAX is being developed under the umbrella of the NatCatDAX Alliance with stakeholders from the public sector, industry, academia, and service providers to the Industry. The NatCatDAX “production” is in the early stages of operationalization. Therefore, the theme of the 8th Symposium is:

“Managing Risk & Resilience - Nat Cat Data (Exposure and Loss)”

The Symposium will evolve along several overlapping and interacting subthemes addressing the use, quality, or lack of Nat Cat data from city, country, and insurance industry perspectives. It will also include some early insights into the NatCatDAX development. These themes will facilitate the debate between the public sector and the insurance industry intended to bridge the “coverage gaps” in Asia on a sustainable and viable foundation. Prominent speakers from the public sector and insurance industry are being invited to spearhead the debate. Symposium sessions will provide a side-by-side stage for speakers from the public and private sectors to address the Nat Cat data and their relevance to managing the risk and building the resilience of major cities with particular focus on Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila and Taipei.

The sub-themes are:

• Nat Cat exposure and loss data – Industry experiences and aspirations
• Nat Cat data supporting risk management and building Nat Cat resilience of the cities
• Insurer’s aspirations from NatCatDAX Data
• Risk modelling and model validation aspirations with NatCatDAX data
• NatCatDAX Developments (including exposure disaggregation, attribute extraction out of remote sensing imagery, enhanced Insured Exposure Data)

We hope that this Symposium will further promote the principles of mutual NatCatDAX benefits for the public and private sectors, and that the invited speakers and participants will embrace this principle in their Symposium contributions.