microinsurance?

just a couple of days ago, our minister for trade and industry and deputy chairman of the monetary authority of singapore was the guest of honour at the 25th pacific insurance conference held at the marina bay sands convention centre.

amongst other significant pointers, mr lim, in his keynote address reminded insurers and reinsurers to play a bigger role in the development of the microinsurance industry, because despite the growing wealth in asia, it has been estimated that up to 70% of the world's low-income population resides in the asia-pacific region.

which led me to being queried by my company's advisers and readers alike on what exactly is this thingy known as microinsurance?

on microinsurance, please allow me to borrow the answer according to wikipedia:

Microinsurance is a term increasingly used to refer to insurance characterized by low premium and low caps or low coverage limits, sold as part of atypical risk-pooling and marketing arrangements, and designed to service low-income people and businesses not served by typical social or commercial insurance schemes.

my comments:

i must admit i have never heard of microinsurance before mr lim's keynote speech and it should be interesting to see what our insurers and reinsurers's response will be with regard to mr lim's call to focus on the lower-income group, the aged and the poor.