Extracts from the address of the Chairman,

YM Tunku Ya'acob Bin Tunku Abdullah

at the Twenty-Seventh Annual General Meeting on 31st March, 2000.

Buy Malaysian Campaign

I am happy to note that since the official launching of our Buy Malaysian Campaign logo with the theme "Owned by Malaysians for Malaysians" by then the Deputy Minister of Finance, YB Dato' Wong See Wah, in 1998, the member companies have been actively using the logo in most of their publications.

Our effort to constantly project the Buy Malaysian Campaign logo has reflected the unique strength and nationalistic spirit of our member companies, and has given a significant competitive edge in terms of identity and recognition amongst the consumers of Malaysia.

Teras Malaysia

On 1 December 1998, the Parliamentary Secretary for the Minister of Finance, YB Dato' Shafie bin Mohd Salleh, officially launched Teras Malaysia. Teras Malaysia is a life insurance product that caters for the insurance needs in the middle and working class public and has now entered its second year since that launch.

I am proud to announce to our member companies that Teras Malaysia has been well-accepted by the public and the eight participating companies achieved a sales record of 30,000 policies with an annualised premium of RM 22.0 million for the first 12 months period from 1 October 1998 to 30 September 1999.

Sihat Malaysia

In September 1999, Sihat Malaysia, the hospital and surgical insurance product for both life and general insurers was approved by Bank Negara Malaysia. The product was created out of joint effort of 28 member companies with the objective of using common pricing, policy conditions coverage and promotional activities.

The Sihat Malaysia product, dubbed as the first National Health Insurance Programme, offers 'cashless' hospital admission and discharge facilities, with comprehensive coverage of medical, hospital and surgical insurance benefits, has been long overdue.

To create product awareness, we had organised an official signing ceremony of the Service Standard Agreements and Sihat Malaysia Consortium Agreements for CEOs from our 28 consortium members, the 3 appointed MCOs (Managed Care Organisation) and MNRB as the Account Manager. The ceremony held on 18 February 2000 was witnessed by the Assistant Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia, Y Bhg Datuk Dr. Awang Adek Hussin.

In the year 1999, we heavily invested on the product promotion and advertising
campaign through press, radio and brochures. The same continues for this year, taking advantage of economies of scale by having 28 member companies sharing the advertising and promotional expenditure. To-date, I am happy to report that the total number of Sihat Malaysia cardholders has reached 50,000. In view of our tremendous success, Sihat Malaysia will continue with its second phase of promotional activities that shall include for the first time, a TV commercial.

In addition to the posters and sales brochures that have been developed in all four languages; namely English, Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil, NIAM shall also be providing VCD and VHS multimedia presentation as marketing tools for our members.

Pension Annuity

As members may be aware, the EPF has proposed that in order to encourage the development of pension annuities business in Malaysia, EPF contributors are permitted to withdraw EPF balances to purchase pension annuity policies. The scheme is yet to be finalized and participating insurers yet to be finalized. This will greatly initiate the development of the private pension industry.

In view of the fact that the scheme is to be launched sometime in July, NIAM has been putting in place a structure that would assist any member company that has been selected by EPF, to work together for their common good. We are hopeful that our role, however limited, will bring positive contribution to our members.

Seminars

Over the years, NIAM has been focusing its attention on the development and improvement of professionalism, leadership and marketing skills of our Managers within the insurance industry. In 1999, despite of the economic slowdown, we have successfully conducted a total of 6 seminars for middle and top management.

For the programmes, we had a number of well-established and experienced speakers like Dr. Palan, Mr. Francis Seaw, Mr. Simon Soh and John Tan.

In view of favourable support and feedback from our member companies, we shall be continuing with our seminars and will be carrying out six programmes for this year.

National Insurance Claims Society (NICS)

NICS or the National Insurance Claims Society was sponsored and launched by NIAM on 15 December 1998. The Society is chaired by Mr. Goh Ching Onn with support and assistance from his 12 Executive Committee members.

For the year 1999, NICS had jointly organised several education and training programmes in relation to the "Best Practice" of insurance claims and loss adjusting for its members with AMLA. The voting membership of NICS comprises NIAM member companies, whilst associate members are individuals from the Claims Department of NIAM's member companies and loss adjustment industry.

NICS had also been organising several luncheon meetings involving claims managers from our member companies with the objective of creating a better team spirit within the industry. In particular, I would like to congratulate NICS on the work they have been conducting in educating our staff in fraud detention and their fraud alert activities.

I hope that we will have the full support and assistance from our member companies for the success of NICS. If we are serious about managing claims better, we as voting members of NICS must commit our time and resources to seeing that NICS succeeds. Claims, as the single largest cost component of our operations, should never be underestimated. The development of a professional and highly competent claims management industry is permanent for the long-term success of our industry.

Marine Insurance

As part of NIAM's commitment towards our members, our Association had been working towards creating greater awareness of local placement of marine insurance. In this context, we have placed advertisements encouraging the purchase of Marine Insurance from NIAM general insurance members.

In particular, the advertisements were placed with local trade journals such as the ACCCIM Bulletin from The Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia, Dewan Suara from Kuala Lumpur & Selangor Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry, The Malaysian Accountant from Malaysian Association of Certified Public Accountants and The Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM). These advertisements were placed mainly in December 1999 and will be followed up in March and April of 2000.

The advertisements were aimed to create awareness to the local exporters and importers of the benefits as well as the advantage of double taxation relief on Marine Insurance premium paid to Malaysian-controlled insurance companies. This advertising campaign was a part of our "Buy Malaysian" campaign.

NIAM RI Club Cocktail

As you are aware, NIAM has been organising quarterly cocktail receptions under the NIAM Club Cocktail banner (formerly known as NIAM RI Club). The Association's objective in organising such gatherings is to bring together CEO's and senior management of our member companies in order to create a better relationship, trust and co-operation amongst our members.