Swiss Re Foundation aims to boost health and environmental innovations through Shine Southeast Asia

• Shine, Swiss Re Foundation’s flagship social entrepreneurship programme, invites participation from social entrepreneurs from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand.
• The programme provides early-stage social entrepreneurs with a grant and access to Swiss Re’s leadership, as well as business expertise and coaching to help them scale their initiatives for impact.

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 20 May 2024 – Swiss Re Foundation is bringing its flagship initiative, Shine, to Southeast Asia for the first time, as it aims to replicate the success from Shine chapters in other regions. Since inception in India in 2018, Shine has expanded to Brazil, Slovakia, South Africa, Switzerland, the UK, US and now Southeast Asia.

The programme which seeks to boost innovation in critical impact areas – such as the Net-Zero transition, health and nutrition, financial literacy, socio-economic well-being, skills development, climate-smart agriculture, disaster risk reduction, and coastal resilience – is open to social entrepreneurs in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand.

Swiss Re will be collaborating with Impact Hub Kuala Lumpur (outreach partner) and BOOKBRIDGE (learning partner) for its Southeast Asia programme.

Tackling tomorrow’s challenges today
Swiss Re Institute’s recent report, Changing Climates: the heat is (still) on, states that APAC economies dominate the top 10 in terms of economic losses as a percentage of GDP from hazard intensification due to climate change. Thailand is one of the countries that show the greatest vulnerability to potential for rising losses as the countries are also exposed to a high probability of hazard intensification, primarily from flooding.

“Southeast Asia is a crucial market for the insurance industry, marked by a dynamic blend of rapid economic growth while being susceptible to pressing issues like climate change and barriers to healthcare. This unique convergence calls for heightened support for innovators and disruptors to spearhead solutions to these societal challenges,” said Victor Kuk, CEO of Swiss Re Asia. “Drawing from the impactful outcomes of our prior Shine programmes in other regions, coupled with the expertise of Swiss Re’s team in the region, we are confident in their ability to guide the next generation of early-stage entrepreneurs and build resilient societies.”

Programme details
Shine Southeast Asia is calling for applications from social innovators across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand until 19 June 2024. The winning applicant will undergo a six-month immersive learning programme starting from January 2025, in which they will be partnered with Swiss Re experts and leadership to develop a strategic, financially viable business.

Aside from Swiss Re’s expertise, the selected entrepreneur stands a chance to win financial award of up to SGD 40 000 to fuel their enterprise’s growth.

For more details on dates and for the link to enter, please visit: Swiss Re Foundation

Read our impact story from the 2021-22 Shine entrepreneur, Hydrogreens Agri Solutions: From grass to glass, a greener value chain for milk (swissrefoundation.org)

Hashtag: #SwissRe

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About Swiss Re

The Swiss Re Group is one of the world’s leading providers of reinsurance, insurance and other forms of insurance-based risk transfer, working to make the world more resilient. It anticipates and manages risk – from natural catastrophes to climate change, from ageing populations to cyber crime. The aim of the Swiss Re Group is to enable society to thrive and progress, creating new opportunities and solutions for its clients. Headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, where it was founded in 1863, the Swiss Re Group operates through a network of around 80 offices globally.

Cautionary note on forward-looking statements
Certain statements and illustrations contained herein are forward-looking. These statements (including as to plans, objectives, targets, and trends) and illustrations provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to a historical fact or current fact.

Forward-looking statements typically are identified by words or phrases such as “anticipate”, “target”, “aim”, “assume”, “believe”, “continue”, “estimate”, “expect”, “foresee”, “intend”, “may increase”, “may fluctuate” and similar expressions, or by future or conditional verbs such as “will”, “should”, “would” and “could”. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the Group’s actual results of operations, financial condition, solvency ratios, capital or liquidity positions or prospects to be materially different from any future results of operations, financial condition, solvency ratios, capital or liquidity positions or prospects expressed or implied by such statements or cause Swiss Re to not achieve its published targets. Such factors include, among others:

• the frequency, severity and development of insured claim events, particularly natural catastrophes, man-made disasters, pandemics, acts of terrorism or acts of war;
• mortality, morbidity and longevity experience;
• the cyclicality of the reinsurance sector;
• central bank intervention in the financial markets, trade wars or other protectionist measures relating to international trade arrangements, adverse geopolitical events, domestic political upheavals or other developments that adversely impact global economic conditions;
• increased volatility of, and/or disruption in, global capital and credit markets;
• the Group’s ability to maintain sufficient liquidity and access to capital markets, including sufficient liquidity to cover potential recapture of reinsurance agreements, early calls of debt or debt-like arrangements and collateral calls due to actual or perceived deterioration of the Group’s financial strength or otherwise;
• the Group’s inability to realise amounts on sales of securities on the Group’s balance sheet equivalent to their values recorded for accounting purposes;
• the Group’s inability to generate sufficient investment income from its investment portfolio, including as a result of fluctuations in the equity and fixed income markets, the composition of the investment portfolio or otherwise;
• changes in legislation and regulation, including changes related to environment, social and governance (“ESG”) matters or the interpretations thereof by regulators and courts, affecting the Group or its ceding companies, including as a result of comprehensive reform or shifts away from multilateral approaches to regulation of global operations;
• the Group’s ability to fully achieve one or more of its ESG or sustainability goals or to fully comply with applicable ESG or sustainability standards;
• matters negatively affecting the reputation of the Group, its board of directors or its management, including matters relating to ESG or sustainability, such as allegations of greenwashing, lack of diversity and similar allegations;
• the lowering or loss of one of the financial strength or other ratings of one or more companies in the Group, and developments adversely affecting its ability to achieve improved ratings;
• uncertainties in estimating reserves, including differences between actual claims experience and underwriting and reserving assumptions;
• policy renewal and lapse rates;
• uncertainties in estimating future claims for purposes of financial reporting, particularly with respect to large natural catastrophes and certain large man-made losses and social inflation litigation, as significant uncertainties may be involved in estimating losses from such events and preliminary estimates may be subject to change as new information becomes available;
• legal actions or regulatory investigations or actions, including in respect of industry requirements or business conduct rules of general applicability, the intensity and frequency of which may also increase as a result of social inflation;
• the outcome of tax audits, the ability to realise tax loss carryforwards and the ability to realise deferred tax assets (including by reason of the mix of earnings in a jurisdiction or deemed change of control), which could negatively impact future earnings, and the overall impact of changes in tax regimes on the Group’s business model;
• changes in accounting estimates or assumptions that affect reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues or expenses, including contingent assets and liabilities;
• changes in accounting standards, practices or policies, strengthening or weakening of foreign currencies;
• reforms of, or other potential changes to, benchmark reference rates;
• failure of the Group’s hedging arrangements to be effective;
• significant investments, acquisitions or dispositions, and any delays, unforeseen liabilities or other costs, lower-than-expected benefits, impairments, ratings action or other issues experienced in connection with any such transactions;
• extraordinary events affecting the Group’s clients and other counterparties, such as bankruptcies, liquidations and other credit-related events;
• changing levels of competition;
• the effects of business disruption due to terrorist attacks, cyberattacks, natural catastrophes, public health emergencies, hostilities or other events;
• limitations on the ability of the Group’s subsidiaries to pay dividends or make other distributions; and
• operational factors, including the efficacy of risk management and other internal procedures in anticipating and managing the foregoing risks.These factors are not exhaustive. The Group operates in a continually changing environment and new risks emerge continually. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Swiss Re undertakes no obligation to publicly revise or update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

This communication is not intended to be a recommendation to buy, sell or hold securities and does not constitute an offer for the sale of, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, securities in any jurisdiction, including the United States. Any such offer will only be made by means of a prospectus or offering memorandum, and in compliance with applicable securities laws.