Strong legislation to back up the requirement to provide insurance products As for the development in the insurance industry, life insurers in Australia are permitted under the Disability Discrimination Act to offer applicants for insurance different terms based on the risk they present, provided they are basing this discrimination on actuarial data or statistics. It is unlawful under the Disability Discrimination Act for insurers to deny applications for insurance without having reasonable and relevant information and data to support their decision. In Malaysia, we often received complaints from the OKU community that their applications were imposed with high premium loading as the OKUs are considered high risk. Therefore, we urge for the insurance industry here, to base their decisions on statistical evidence and not purely on assumptions. In light of these global trends, going forward, being a vibrant and progressive financial industry, we must always be at the forefront, embrace new innovation and adopt best practices in serving the needs of all segments of society including the OKUs. Expectations moving forward: Role of industry’s association – to drive industry towards OKU inclusive Moving forward, each party has to play its role in promoting and contributing towards this important agenda. Given the need to address the issues faced by the OKU community in gaining access to financial services in this country, the associations should drive the industry in enhancing the role of the financial sector towards this endeavor.
In this light, the Bank of Thailand (BOT) has included financial access as our urgent aspect in the current BOT’s financial master plan. 11. Secondly, on ecology, we heed the lesson of how to progress while ensuing to environmental sustainability. After the rapid development stage in Thailand, ecological problems have become more prevalent. Concerns have been raised over the sustainability of ecology and, more fundamentally, the socio-economic well-being of the people. 12. Today, effort has been made to maintain the balance between the ecology and growth. For instance, environmental protection and sustainable development have been included as an integral part of Thailand’s National Development Plan since 1997. However, the goal of ensuing environmental sustainability cannot be easily established. And I hope that today’s conference will also examine the environmental sustainability while focusing on growth and inclusiveness. 13. Lastly, on the stability of financial system, the lessons that can be appropriately derived from Thailand’s experiences are on external imbalances and the effects on financial institutions. The 1997 financial crisis was originated from large capital inflows. Between 1992 and 1996, Thai economy had attracted massive volumes of capital inflow of more than 355 billion bahts from abroad. At that time, the volatile international capital flows went into our financial system and increased the system’s vulnerability. The crisis then erupted when there was a sudden and large capital outflow, which during 1997–1999 amounted to some 389 billion bahts. What followed is the closing down of numerous financial institutions as well as the economic slump. 14.