Devi Khechinashvili, President of the Georgian Insurance Association, talks about need to introduce mandatory third-party liability insurance for car owners. According to him, the draft law has already passed all relevant procedures and has been included in the list of documents to be considered by parliament, though the law has not yet been adopted. Devi Khechinashvili explains that out of 1,700,000 cars registered in Georgia, only 140,000 are insured that is a low rate. He believes that timely launch of mandatory insurance can solve the problem.
“If we want people and businesses to be insured against threats, including their property, cars and damage caused by road accidents, we must do what the whole world does, except us. This is mandatory car owner's liability insurance. The law has been made by the government and is among the laws to be submitted to parliament. This has been the case since last year. In our country, it is not mandatory. That is, a person or organization insures their car and voluntarily buys civil liability insurance. In general, their number is very small. Out of 1 million 700 thousand cars, about 140 thousand are insured. This is very small in terms of safety and compensation, but this figure is gradually increasing. A steady growth trend is recorded at 10-15%, but it is still very insignificant as cannot solve the problem,” says Devi Khechinashvili.
We asked the President of the Association's opinion on why the law has not been passed yet. Devi Khechinashvili believes this is the result of populist politics. In his words, people do not like being ordered to do something and asked to pay extra, even if it is a small expense.
"President of the Insurance Association explains that insurance is mandatory all over the world, as researches show that people don’t want to insure their cars if it is voluntary.
"In Europe, on average, 8% of cars are damaged. In countries like ours, more than 10%. This means that their losses are poorly compensated. Then trade and fights go. In the end, everyone loses. Insurance is a very important tool for social protection as it protects everyone, both the person responsible for the accident and the victim- Devi Khechinashvili stresses.
