Recent figures reveal that 52 percent of the natural catastrophes that occurred worldwide during 2005 hit the Asia-Pacific region.

However, losses in the region represented a fractional three percent of the total insured loss last year of $83 billion USD, reflecting extremely low insured rates in light of the numerous Asian catastrophes. T

he urgent need for catastrophe cover and the issue of low penetration rates of insurance was illustrated recently by the earthquake which hit Indonesia.