Yoo Kwang-yeol, Chairman of the AGCIA poses for a photo in commemoration of the 2021 AGCIA Video Conference at SGI Headquarters in Seoul on January 20. (Photo: SGI)

Seoul Guarantee Insurance (SGI) announced on Jan. 26 that SGI president Yoo Kwang-yeol was appointed as the new chairman of the Asia Guarantee & Credit Insurance Association (AGCIA).The promotion took place on Jan. 20.

The AGCIA is Asia’s first block community for guarantee insurance companies. It consists of nine members from five Asian countries. It was officially launched through its inaugural general meeting in September 2020.

President Yoo’s term as chairman of the association runs until April 20, 2021.

Yoo held a video conference with officials of the AGCIA as his first move as chairman.

The online meeting was participated in by a total of 19 officials from SGI Seoul Guarantee of Korea, Korean Re of Korea, Baoviet of Vietnam, China United of China, National Re of the Philippines, Sinar Mas of Indonesia, Tianan of Taiwan and Gongbao Tech of China.

The meeting began with an opening address by chairman Yoo, followed by greetings from representatives of member companies.

The agenda was to go over the business plan for 2021 and to invite members to share ideas regarding ways to facilitate partnerships and find and seize new business opportunities for AGCIA member companies.

The Secretariat Office introduced “researching guarantee insurance market of member countries” and “recruiting new members” as key business plans for 2021.

The participants shared their knowledge of the Asian market while broadening their networks among member companies.

They also exchanged the current status of the COVID-19 crisis and the pandemic’s impacts on their countries.

“In Vietnam, medical cost for COVID-19 is funded by the government. In light of the growing interest, however, an insurance product that covers the risk of COVID-19 is being under consideration,” explained Nguyen Quang Hung of Baoviet.

But a consensus among members affirmed that so far, the guarantee and credit industry has not show signs of material damage caused by COVID-19.

Afterwards, there was an open discussion regarding business cooperation strategy. “Establishing a common standard for measuring risks would facilitate future cooperation among members” suggested Alexander L. Reyes of National Reinsurance of the Philippines.

“Forming a reinsurance pool could be another way of distributing risks,” Ketut of Sinar Mas further added. New ideas presented on the day will be subject to further reviews at the next Annual General Meeting.

“Holding the conference as a virtual meeting was an inevitable choice amidst the spread of the COVID-19 virus, but we are glad to finally connect with members face to face on video screens and sincerely hope to meet in person this September,” Yoo said.

“We will strengthen the AGCIA’s roles as a platform to share a wide array of information on Asian guarantee insurance and credit insurance,” Yoo added.

“We will spare no support for the growth and advancement of the AGCIA.” In the meantime, SGI announced on Jan. 25 that it struck an agreement with D.CAMP on giving support to promising startups selected by D.CAMP.

Through this agreement, SGI will provide preferential guarantee support for startups selected by D.CAMP, a foundation established banks to support promising startups.

Startups will be able to use performance guarantee insurance and license guarantee insurance products necessary for various licensing and contracts and orders on credit without any collateral. A special credit limit of 500 million won will be awarded to them for two years.

In addition, they will be able to use corporate credit management consulting from external credit information companies and employee education programs free of charge.

As a result, SGI will be able to supply about 70 billion won worth of guarantees to 170 companies.

Earlier, SGI also signed a similar business agreement with Ulsan Metropolitan City in order to support promising companies selected by Ulsan Metropolitan City on Jan. 20.

Under this agreement, SGI will provide preferential guarantee support to newly founded companies chosen by Ulsan Metropolitan City.

Meanwhile, SGI contributed 30 million won to the Ulsan branch of the Community Chest of Korea following the business agreement ceremony.

The funds will be used to take care of marginalized people having a difficulty in making ends meet due to the spread of the COVID-19 virus in Ulsan.