Advisor to the Prime Minister on Trade and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood, Federal Secretary Commerce Muhammad Saleh Ahmad Farooqi and Chairman State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan (SLIC) Shoaib J Hussain on Friday launched State Life Insurance’s digital portal and mobile App during a colourful golden jubilee celebration of Corporation in Karachi on Feb 11.

On occasion, a short documentary on SLIC was played to depict the success story of Stat Life from 1972 to 2022.

Addressing the golden jubilee ceremony, PM’s Advisor Abdul Razak Dawood appreciated the organizing of fifty years of golden celebration and termed it a milestone that would be long remembered in the checkered history of SLIC.

He congratulated the top management for sterling performance and growth on policy and profit sides despite COVID-19 shocks. He hoped the state-owned insurance company would pursue futuristic policy and focus more on innovations to become a leader in the services sector, which was fast growing globally.

He, however, emphasized that SLIC, with other two state-run insurance companies – National Insurance Corporation Limited and Pakistan Insurance Corporation Limited – should ensure a competitive atmosphere for further growth of this sector.

He recalled that the country’s insurance sector had experienced ups and downs. During the Musharraf era, when he held the same portfolio as the Commerce Minister, the insurance sector was not in good condition. Three years back, it experienced almost the same environment.

As a country, he said, in the past, due attention and support were not given to exports, especially of services. But now, with better government policies, the services sector exports had significantly increased; the information technology sector had a significant stake in services exports with 50% growth.

For this financial year, the target for IT exports had been set at 3.7 billion dollars, and for non-IT services, including insurance, shipping line and consultancy, the target was $ 7.5 billion. During the last fiscal year, the textile exports went up to dollars 21 billion against $ 15 billion.

He mentioned that besides going for value-addition and innovations in the textile sector, the country needed to develop non-traditional export sectors, including the services sector, for sustained growth in the exports.

” We depend more on textiles. We should be forward-looking and focus on the services sector and another non-traditional sector,” he said and added that it was encouraging that the textile exports had significantly grown during the last couple of years. Still, textile brought only foreign exchange, whereas IT exports earned respect for the country and money.

The Advisor said the country had faced challenges on the economic front; however, the nation could manage the situation with patience, determination, and optimism. He expressed his satisfaction that the country’s economy was moving in the right direction and the macro-economic indicators were very positive.

Federal Secretary of Commerce Muhammad Sualeh Ahmed Farooqui, while appreciating the performance of SLIC after its 50 years of service, said it was the right time to lay the foundation for the next fifty years.

He acknowledged that SLI had adopted digitalization and was expanding the customers base.

Chairman SLIC Shoaib Javed Hussain spoke of the company’s performance and plans, including health insurance. He said, ” Since its inception in 1972, State Life has been successfully meeting its vision, leading Pakistan’s insurance Industry, enhancing social and financial protection of Pakistanis from Karachi to Khyber and Gwader to Gilgit.

He said that over its 50 years journey, State Life has focused on servicing its esteemed customers with more than 11,000 locations across Pakistan and is the only insurance company to allocate 97.5% of its profits to its policyholders in the shape of bonuses.

State Life has extended its services to our community beyond life protection to health solutions. It proudly serves the Sehat Sahulat program. In 2021, despite unprecedented COVID challenges, State Life had continued its mission to serve its community and policyholders by declaring record-setting bonuses with an expected bonus allocation of more than Rs 80bn in 2021; and a historical payout ratio with more than Rs 100 billion expected claim payments in 2021.

He said the digital facilities would help provide better insurance services to Pakistanis within and outside the country for overseas. (With input APP).