Only 6.5 million Vietnamese people, out of a population over 84 million, have access to life insurance. And, foreign insurers are seeing Vietnam as a “promising land.”
This is the evaluation by Mr David Fried, Director of HSBC Insurance Asia Pacific of the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corp (HBSC). This evaluation is proven by the presence of world giant insurers in Vietnam this year.
Since early 2007, Dai-ichi Life of Japan entered the Vietnamese market, buying stakes of Bao Minh-CMG Life Insurance Company. The UK-based HSBC has already opened its life insurance representative office, HSBC Life International Limited, in Hanoi.
Mr Takashi Fugii, General Director of Dai-ichi Life Vietnam, said the decision to penetrate the Vietnamese market, where many world giants already have a strong foothold, results from the potential of the Vietnamese insurance market and high demand by the Vietnamese people. He affirmed that, with long-term business commitment, Dai-ichi Life will be a friend to every Vietnamese family.
“The Vietnamese economy is growing and its admission to the WTO has attracted more attention from foreign investors. This has created a competitive and potential environment for insurance companies,” said Mr Bruce Howe, Chief of HSBC Life International Limited in Hanoi. He stressed that this is an encouraging start and HSBC Life International Limited wants to become an important member of the market.
The confidence of giant foreign insurers has increased as Vietnamese commitments to open its insurance market, following WTO entry, are being implemented. According to the commitments, Vietnam will permit foreign insurance companies to set up wholly foreign-invested branches in Vietnam and they are allowed to provide non-life insurance services five years after that. Limitations on foreign insurer operations will be held at a minimum.
Especially in the coming years, Vietnam will carry out commitments for foreign-led insurance branches in the country, in accordance to International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) standards. At the same time, foreign insurers will be permitted to provide several types of compulsory insurance and enjoy full national treatment status.
Mr Phung Dac Loc, General Secretary of Vietnam Insurance Association, said, with the new players, the life insurance market of Vietnam will see a year of eventful competition. “The market will be more heated if the Ministry of Finance approves a new product, the insurance-saving-investment combination,” Loc added.
Thuy-Anh
Vietnamese
