Digital Pilipinas, the largest private sector-led movement for creating an innovation and technology ecosystem in the country that is now actively engaged in a global digital economy, recently organized a roundtable discussion on sustainability in the face of innovations in the Insurtech and HealthTech fronts.
Joining the discussion were industry leaders and key stakeholders from the insurance and health spaces led by the Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association (PIRA), the Philippine Life Insurance Association (PLIA), and the Philippine Insurtech and Healthtech Association (PIHAI.)
Photo shows (clockwise, from left): Digital Pilipinas Convenor Amor Maclang, PLIA President and Etiqa Philippines President and CEO Rico Bautista, PLIA General Manager and Data Protection Officer George Mina, Metro Pacific Health Tech mWell Chief Marketing & Commercial Officer Gary Dujali, Inypay Founder and CEO Arivuvel Ramu, and Tangere CEO Martin Penaflor as they discussed the trends, innovations, and growth prospects in the Philippines during a roundtable discussion organized by Digital Pilipinas.
Rico Bautista, President of PLIA and also the President and CEO of Etiqa Philippines, shared his insights on the company’s innovative technological solutions and its commitment to serving customers well through various digital touchpoints.
“We need to be able to provide excellent customer experience. What we have done is even before the pandemic hit, we were already developing our app-based solutions,” Bautista stressed.
“Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) is something that all of us should be pursuing. Digitalization and being part of Digital Pilipinas and being part of the Healthtech and Insurtech associations allow us to push forward that ESG concept and initiative that we all should be having. We want to be at the forefront of this because we are serious about sustainability and ESG,” he added.
Meanwhile, PLIA General Manager and Data Protection Officer George Mina discussed the significant changes in the insurance industry in the sphere of digitalization.
“The most significant is being able to sell life insurance on a digital basis. It used to be a face-to-face thing. If you look at the websites of life insurance companies, they’re getting more and more personalized (in terms of) branding of digital assistance,” Mina explained.
Arivuvel Ramu, the founder and CEO of Inypay, a hyper-personalized digital banking solutions provider, talked about the insurance onboarding platform and the potential for InsurTech growth.
“If you look at Insurtech on a global scale, it has a US$83B market share as of 2022. By 2028, the prediction for micro-insurance alone is US$118B global market share. Out of that, if you look at Southeast Asia alone, as of 2022, it’s a US$3B worth of market and by 2028, the potential market to grow is by US$8.4B just for the microfinance sector alone,” he said.
Metro Pacific Health Tech mWell Chief Marketing & Commercial Officer Gary Dujali shared the company’s initiatives to support the growing Healthtech industry of the country as a fully integrated and fully digital health and wellness platform.
“This is a fully integrated app experience. We’re in that space where we need to digitalize and bridge the digital divide. This app is that. From the time you select a doctor, all the way towards buying your medicine, and delivered straight to your house,” he said.
Initial research findings from The Voice of Digital Pilipinas
The event also served as a venue to discuss the initial research findings of The Voice of Digital Pilipinas, a collaborative undertaking by Digital Pilipinas, Global Fintech Institute, and Tangere that aims to give a democratic voice to Filipinos. Focusing on cybersecurity and data privacy, the first research revealed that government agencies are the most trusted application platform in terms of mobile applications.
“This serves as an opportunity for the Philippine government. The trust factor is really high, with 3/5 Filipinos preferring government agency applications. This is followed distantly by applications from e-wallets and bank applications,” said Martin Penaflor, CEO of Tangere.
The Voice of Digital Pilipinas will be coming up with research on different topics including InsurTech and HealthTech to uncover the pulse of the Filipinos in various industries.
For her part, Digital Pilipinas Convenor Amor Maclang emphasized the need to support local players in the InsurTech and HealthTech sectors of the country which are also two of the very important work streams of Digital Pilipinas.
“Health and insurance are two very important aspects of our work. We will be having a series of programs for both HealthTech and InsurTech and grow these industries domestically. We are working on a possible execution of smart contracts and blockchain in the insurance space. There will be a pitch fest and a hackathon because we realize that many of the InsurTech players are foreign. We hope to encourage many InsurTech founders coming from the Philippines and coming from ASEAN to join the pitch fest and hackathon and be part of the Digital Pilipinas Festival x Philippine FinTech Festival happening in November,” Maclang said.
By fostering cooperation among sector leaders, key players, and advocates, a more inclusive and sustainable Insurtech and Healthtech industry can be achieved for the benefit of Filipinos. When insurance, health, and technology converge, they have the potential to bring about positive change in society and contribute to nation-building.
InsurTech and HealthTech are two of the key industries that will be given focus on at the upcoming Digital Pilipinas Festival x Philippine FinTech Festival happening on November 21 to 24, 2023, at SMX Aura and in various co-located venues and innovation hubs across the country.
To register for the festival, please visit https://digitalpilipinas.ph.
