Page 47 - IRANRptAug21

9.1.7 Healthcare sector news
Iranian insurers call for government help as coronavirus payout pressure mounts
The Iranian Insurers’ Organisation—an industry lobby group—has requested financial support from Iran’s government as it contends with the country’s growing death toll from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, according to Donyaye Eqtesad.
Insurance companies, call centres and secondary agents in offices around the country suspended much of their work given closure notices issued by the government as the outbreak worsened, but following their return to operation they have found themselves buckling under the weight of applications and payouts.
Some 400,000 people are employed in the insurance sector in Iran, a country of 83mn. The industry is now facing a perfect storm of policy auto-renewals together with payouts, despite not being able to raise the base prices of policies.
The medical and life insurance segments have reportedly taken the biggest hits in recent days, with huge payouts becoming due.
Also, unemployment benefit, which is backed by insurance, has skyrocketed in recent weeks, with some 600,000 people officially laid off as a consequence of the economic effects of the pandemic in Iran. Earlier, as part of preparations to deal with the outbreak, insurance companies were told by Central Insurance of Iran to recapitalise and meet new minimum liquidity rules ahead of the impending payout surge.
The government in 2017 set IRR2.5 trillion ($65.18mn at the official exchange rate) as the minimum capital requirement for starting a reinsurance firm and IRR1tn as the requirement for starting an insurance firm.
9.1.8 Agricultural sector news
‘Ignorant or careless ministers spreading rice cultivation across Iran despite water crisis’
Growing rice on Iranian land other than territories bordering the Caspian Sea “is like shooting oneself in the foot”, according to a Tehran Times columnist who has warned of the peril posed to Iran by the expanded cultivation of the water-intensive crop. M.A. Saki sounded the alarm following two weeks in which street protests over water shortages have rocked parts of the country.
Despite Iran’s water scarcity, the cultivation of rice has been spreading in around 20 provinces across the country “like a pandemic”, he wrote.
Weighing up the dire situation, Saki cautioned: “The cultivation of rice, which started [in Iran] more than 20 years ago, has dried up rivers and led to the depletion of underground waters in some places. To compensate for water shortage, farmers are digging deeper and deeper wells to irrigate paddy fields. “The massive consumption of surface waters to irrigate paddy fields or other water-intensive crops like onion or watermelon has even disrupted the ecosystem in certain areas. However, officials, especially those in the ministries of agriculture and energy, are either ignorant of the short-term and long-term consequences of this move or they are purely careless.”
Saki said it was possible that agriculture ministers have wanted to take pride in the fact that during their tenures Iranian rice production expanded. But implying that this was wrong-headed, the columnist observed: “Iran is an arid and semi-arid country, and during history Iranians had learned how to manage water resources. But now that Iran is seeing less precipitation and more droughts due to climate change farmers are being allowed to grow crops that need lots of water.”
47 IRAN Country Report August 2021 www.intellinews.com