Could you give us more information on historical background of your company, its structure and main activities today?
First of all, I would like to thank the edition of "Forbs" magazine for their interest they have shown to our agency. Also, I would like to use this opportunity to express my sincere respect towards the large audience of readers of your magazine.
Besides I would like to note the importance of the project you are involved in at the moment. According to the analysis which has been carried out in Uzbekistan regarding transformation can be observed better from the experience of certain companies. Information which is spread world wide thanks to your publication is not only useful for us but for the whole international community.
"Madad" - agency on insurance protection of private entrepreneurship and small business, which was created as an open type of a joint stock company and approved by the decree of the President of Uzbekistan in 1995 is also included in that. The main founders of the agency "Madad" are leading banks in the country such as National Bank, Promstroybank, Pahtabank etc.), as well as several organizations as Chambers of Trade and entrepreneurship, Association of farmers, Association of Business Women of Uzbekistan.
The basic directions of activities of the insurance agency Madad are:
- Evaluation and expertise of the investment projects of the subjects of small and medium business;
- Provide with the service under the privileged conditions for the insurance protection from the entrepreneurship risks, insurance responsibility of the borrower for non return loan;
- Provision of insurance protection for foreign investments which are used for the development of the small business in the country.
The actuality of the above stated activities of our agency is following from the strategic tasks of the economic reformation of Uzbekistan.
According to the state program regarding the support of the small and medium business they have created a privileged conditions for the investment which will be given to more active subjects in the field of goods producers. There are many specialized, out of budget funds that are working in this field, they are: Business Fund, Employment fund under the Ministry of Labour and Fund of farmers of Uzbekistan, as well as commercial banks. Their financial sources are ambitiously directed towards the financing the small and medium businesses. All the financial institution in the world classify this type on insurance as a high risk taking and financially unattractive.
Latter can be defined from insufficiency of assets, which might have served to maintain the loan. Insufficiency of the assets of the small and medium business can be explained thus, the process of formation of the middle class owners in Uzbekistan are on the first stage of its development. Here the role of insurance companies are crucial. Government therefore within the limits of its insurance reformation program in 1995 has lent us 100 thousand sum (interest and tax free for 3 years) in order to form our insurance resources.
The Agency "Madad" is keeping contacts
with many organizations of market infrastructure.
They are - out of budget funds, commercial banks
and business associations. All these, as well as
our agency are the members of the Republican Coordination
Council for the development of the small and medium
business. Our agency is also an association member
of the Chambers of Trade and Entrepreneurship of
Uzbekistan, which allows specialists of the agency
to be aware of "internal" problems and
develop other more important insurance services.
Today, there are 30 insurance companies in Uzbekistan.
This market is reforming and developing dynamically.
It is vital to note that our insurance agency is
deemed as one of the top leaders of the insurance
market due to its financial opportunities, quantity
of its signed contracts and permanent clients.
If at the beginning of its activities the agency
"Madad" had three kinds of insurance services,
at present, it has more than 10 insurance products.
By serving its new insurance products "Madad"
is equally competing with leading insurance companies
such as "Uzbekinvest", "Uzagrosugurta"
and "Kafolot". During its 5 years activity
"Madad" has gathered an analytical information
about small business and statistics of various risks
involved. This data is widely used to work out new
kinds of insurance products and for the perfection
of existing ones. At present, there have been many
alteration regarding the terms and conditions on
our insurance product "the responsibility of
the borrower for non return loan" due to the
changes in legislation and results of the monitoring
researches. For instance, in 1995-97 we had been
insuring the 90% of the responsibility of the borrowers
for non-return loan. Today, this has been brought
down to 50%. This was agreed because banks are started
to accept the equipment of an entrepreneur, which
he is intended to obtain from the loan as a pledge
for the loan. This rational approach has interested
banks as well as our potential clients and at the
moment, our agency has been collaborating with more
than 20 commercial banks. The limits of the collaboration
is expanding due to the insurance services shown
for international financial institutions. |
It is essential to state that the banking system of Uzbekistan is exceeding the level of development of insurance companies. Hence, our tight collaborations with them guarantees the development of our agency in the nearest future.
How many people do actually work for your company?
Our insurance Agency "Madad" which has been in this business more than 5 years has more than 4000 investment projects of small and medium business. At present, despite the above mentioned insurance services many other types of insurance services are implemented, on which there is demand in the market.
There are 13 affiliates functioning in all the regions of the country excluding central office in Tashkent. Agency is also on the stage of developing network for insurance agents.
There are about 150 employees, 50 of them working the head office and 100 in the affiliates. Also we have about 100 agents that we have signed contracts with and they receive commissions from the volume of work they do.
What has been your turnover?
Our turnover is slightly more than 262.2 million soums for the last 12 months. Out of this 71.4 million soums are from the insurance of responsibility of the borrowers for non return loan. 100.3 million soums is from insurance of property, 13.6 million is from the insurance for the accidents and 7.9 is other insurance services. The rest 69 million soums is coming from investment activities.
What would be your final message to our readers that are potential investors in Uzbekistan?
Uzbekistan has developed it own economic market reform. Since its independence Uzbekistan has attained successes in formation of market mechanisms and in creation of many institutions of market infrastructure. The insurance agency "Madad" is one of them. It has a stable place in the internal market. Furthermore, we are attempting to integrate with the international insurance market, developed and CIS countries. Our opinions in this matter is coinciding with the interest of potential investors of Uzbekistan. Certainly, there were also mistakes and unrealized opportunities. Mainly, we are aware of them, have an ability to consciously evaluate and determine them.
There is on proverb in East: "Better to see once than hearing twice."
We have witnessed for number of times when foreign entrepreneurs came to our country and changed their opinion about Uzbekistan, its people and its conditions for business.
NOTE: World Investment News Ltd cannot be made responsible for the content of unedited transcriptions. |
MADAD