The autumn meeting of the Berne Union Prague Club was held in Belgrade from 2 to 5 December 2012. The Director of AOFI, Milanko Bogosavljevic, said to the press that the main topic of this year’s session was support to exporters through the insurance institute, which reduces their risk on foreign markets.
He emphasized that AOFI, a member of the Berne Union Prague Club since December 2006, provides insurance for about 6 percent of export operations from Serbia, and this year the agency achieved a 12 percent growth of export insurance.
“Serbia needs to increase its exports, and insurance as a non-financial product will mean a lot for future support and development, because it reduces the risk”, he said.
The Deputy Secretary General of the Berne Union, Fabrice Morel, said that Berne Union members insure over 10 percent of the world exports. According to him the members of the Berne Union are a very important factor in the world trade and will be very significant in overcoming the world economic crisis through insurance of export operations.
The chairperson of the Prague Club, Ola Gadallah, said that the Prague Club was founded in 1993 by the Berne Union and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development with the aim to support and assist in development of newly established export credit insurance agencies.
The Berne Union Prague Club is an international association of new and existing export credit and investment insurance companies. Its first members were countries from Central and Eastern Europe, and later it also included members from Africa and Asia. The Prague Club supports its members to develop their capacities and systems for crediting export operations and insurance of investments.
One of the most important activities of the Prague Club is establishing cooperation and exchanging information and experiences between export credit agencies during regular meetings twice a year.
Serbian Export Credit and Insurance Agency – AOFI became a member of the Prague Club in December 2006.