Brunei's Local News - Brudirect.com

Bandar Seri Begawan - The second intake of the Asean School for Young Insurance Managers (AYIM) programme was officially opened yesterday by Dayang Hajah Rosni Haji Tungkat, Acting Deputy Permanent Secretary and Director of Financial Institutions Division at the Ministry of Finance at a hotel in Gadong.

The AYIM ptogramme, a project of the Asean Insurance Education Committee (A1EC) endorsed and supported by the Asean Insurance Council (AIC), is aimed at nurturing and developing the next generation of Asean insurance industry leaders to achieve the global management standards of their peers in the more developed markets in an increasingly challenging and complex market.

Held biennially, this year's AYIM has attracted a record 63 young insurance managers from nine countries, making it an even a bigger event than the inaugural intake held in Bali two years ago, which then attracted 58 participants from six countries. Dayang Hajah Rosni, in her speech

amongst others, underscored the importance of young managers to acquire several skills and knowledge such as effective crisis management, damage control and strategic leadership. This is especially so in light of the prevailing financial crisis which demands managers' ability to respond and adapt to the changing needs and challenges of the insurance industry.

She urged all participants to take the opportunity from the programme and gain as much knowledge as possible from their fellow managers from the Asean region and the invited speakers from several institutions. She said that managers should run their companies well and maintain integrity, credibility and accountability at all times to ensure that the 'promises' in the form of agreed compensation to policyholders are realised.

She said that like other Asean jurisdictions, Brunei Darussalam also continues to enhance the expertise and skills of its human resources in various sectors; including insurance. The participation of some 30 young managers from a number of takaful and insurance companies in Brunei clearly reflects this enthusiasm, she said.

One of the prime movers behind the AYIM initiative, Mr Teddy Hailamsah, Secretary-General of the Asean Insurance Council (AIC) said that with its sound long-term

objectives of developing a programme that would serve as the foundation to develop future generations of industry leaders across all Asean markets, the AIC does not need to deliberate too long to give the AY I M project its full and unanimous support, and approve a US$5,000 grant to be used as a seed fund for the School.

"With its vast experience and strong reputation for the high quality of its programmes, the Singapore College of Insurance (SIC) was invited by the A IEC to conceptualise the AYIM programme and subsequently appointed as the AYIM Programme Manager. Other AI EC members, in particular the insurance training institutes in Asean, were asked to help contribute ideas for the curriculum and recommend faculty members," he said.

Chairman of General Insurance Association of Brunei (GIAB), Mr Paul Kong said that it was indeed a great privilege for the Brunei insurance industry to play host to such a high quality programme as AYIM.

"We want to make sure that all of our own bright, promising industry executives would benefit from the learning experience and the opportunity to interact with their peers as well as the other Asean industry leaders who are also gathered here in Brunei to attend the AIC and Asean Insurance Regulators meetings. We are certainly very pleased that our industry has responded positively, with 30 of the 62 AYIM participants coming from Bruneian companies," he said. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin