DOHA: SEIB Insurance and Reinsurance announced yesterday to have extended its support for the second edition of Qatar International Medical Devices & Healthcare Exhibition and Conference (QMED 2019) as a ‘Silver Sponsor’ of the Qatar’s largest and flagship medical trade event.
Held at the Qatar National Convention Center over a 5,000 square-meter space, the exhibition will take place between March 25 and March 27.
Commenting on SEIB’s participation in QMED 2019, Elias Chedid, the company’s Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive Officer, said that this strategic partnership aims at empowering the Qatari healthcare sector as a national engine of economic growth. Since its establishment, SEIB has focally extended its support to healthcare enterprises as an integral member of the Qatari insurance sector and system, Chedid adds.
SEIB is the third largest health insurance company in Qatar, Chedid noted, with this vertical representing nearly 50 percent of its insurance portfolio, and serving customers across the globe, while general insurance services account for the other half of its business. SEIB’s license in the Qatari market has enabled it to rapidly and significantly scale its operations, he adds, to a wide swath of health insurance, Takaful (Shari’a-compliant insurance) and non-Takaful products, and short-term contract life insurance services for corporate clients that are renewable on an annual basis.
Building on its growth trajectory and momentum over the last nine years, SEIB will continue to expand its footprint in Qatar, Chedid stresses, particularly as the market’s structural and regulatory developments offer fertile grounds for operational scale; chief among which are laws set by the QCB (Qatari Central Bank) and supported by the government to strengthen market competitiveness, consumer protection, and nationalized economic empowerment.
The strength of the national economy, backed by solid governmental expenditures, both of which have greatly pushed the sector and its contribution to the national GDP, remains key drivers behind the Qatari insurance market’s growth potential, Chedid said. Another organic driver owes to the population growth spurt that Qatar has experienced in the last decade which has grown to over 2.8 million citizens and residents today.
The third driver to the Qatari insurance sector, Chedid points, owes to its long and established history in the market. Qatar’s most prominent insurance players had existed and scaled prior to their regulatory authorities and frameworks, having laid the foundations for the sector’s growth since their establishment. Today, the regulatory environment is continuously evolving and improving in favour of insurance product innovation and scalability, pushing, in turn, the demand for insurance products and the market around them, he added.
SEIB’s QMED 2019 participation will feature a number of on-site activities and activations, in partnership with West Bay Medicare, including free medical checkups for visitors (such as blood sugar and pressure tests, and weight, height and BMI measurement), as well as educational sessions around nationwide health concerns and issues.
Dr Subhi Abushkair, CEO of West Bay Medicare, said: “We are pleased to participate in such a national event hand in hand with our partner Seib Insurance, and we will spare no efforts during the three days to raise awareness for a healthier life.”
Khalifa Al Muhandes, general manager at Sougha, the organizing company behind QMED 2019, extended his gratitude and appreciation to SEIB for reiterating its strategic partnership with and sponsorship of the exhibition.
