RIYADH — The Saudi Ministry of Culture has finally started offering the “Cultural Insurance Product” as it guarantees protection against potential physical damage to all cultural assets, creates a greater level of sustainability, and ensures their continued existence.

The product will raise awareness of the importance of preserving cultural assets as part of the Saudi heritage, and also support its economy, while encouraging cooperation between the related sectors.

Eng. Mustafa Yanbuawi, Director General of Risks and Compliance at the Ministry of Culture, said the cultural insurance product market is promising, stressing its importance to understand opportunities and risks and how they relate to each other. He said the ministry has started with two products: the heritage buildings product and the artworks product, adding that the culture system will create more new insurance products to cover the cultural sector in general.

He pointed out that the number of cultural assets in Saudi Arabia is in the thousands, noting that there is a group of assets kept by collectors and owners of artistic pieces, in addition to heritage and archeological buildings owned by the private sector.

He also pointed out that “insurance of heritage buildings provides protection against the result of physical damage to assets following accidents by covering operational and construction risks, and natural disasters while adhering to restoration requirements that ensure the preservation of authenticity and identity.”

Eng. Ahmed Al-Qaseer, Director General of Supervision at the Insurance Authority, said: “We are confident that these initiatives will enhance Saudi Arabia’s position as one of the promising markets for the insurance sector around the world, and will enhance this sector’s contribution to sustainable economic growth.”

He also described the launch of the cultural insurance product in Saudi Arabia as a pioneering step in the field of protecting cultural heritage, as this product works to provide comprehensive protection for cultural and heritage works and assets, enhances their sustainability, and preserves their historical and artistic value.

The conference witnessed the signing of a number of agreements between the Ministry of Culture and several parties, with the aim of activating the cultural insurance product. The first insurance agreement was with the Cooperative Insurance Company, and the second agreement was with the Loyalty Cooperative Insurance Company. This document focuses on the special nature of heritage buildings.

The conference hosted two panel discussions moderated by Yasser Al-Saqqaf. The first was titled: Securing Heritage Buildings and featured the founding partner of Al-Dhawaher Al-Omraniya Architectural Engineering Company Reda Sejiny, the founding partner of Barcode Asset Valuation Company Abdulrahman Abanmi, CEO of Marsh Insurance Brokerage Bassam Al-Badr, Director of the Architectural Heritage Department at the Ministry of Culture Badr Al-Hamdan, and CEO of the General Insurance Sector at Al-Tawuniya Insurance Sultan Al-Khamshi.

The Ministry launched the “Cultural Insurance” product, as part of its efforts to protect cultural assets in all their forms to ensure stability for the cultural economy, create a safe environment for investment in it, protect it from the financial consequences of losses, and support adherence to best procedures and practices.

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