New US Player Signs up Vietnam Insurance Market

New US Player Signs up Vietnam Insurance Market

The US-based AAA Insurance Holding Company is planning to launch a non-life insurance and re-insurance branch in Vietnam in October this year, the firm’s chairman and CEO Do Thi Kim Lien said Monday.

Lien said the insurer was given the operation license from Vietnam’s Trade Ministry in February 28, and it is completing all procedures to make the debut.

AAA will focus on customers among local small and medium enterprises, Lien said, stressing that the company will be the first insurers in Vietnam to provide insurance service in the agriculture sector, which is encouraged by the Ministry of Finance.

AAA has chartered capital of VND80 billion (US$5 million), contributed by two major stakeholders, including commercial banks and some individual investors. The firm has been allowed to operate in the country for 99 years.

Besides AAA, Vietnam has 18 insurance companies (including three State-owned, six joint-stock, six wholly foreign-owned and nine joint-ventures), one State-owned re-insurance company and five insurance brokerages. There are also around 30 representative offices of foreign insurers in the local market.

Total insurance premiums in Vietnam rose 25 per cent in 2004 totalling VND14.232 trillion (US$906.5 million) and accounting for nearly 2 per cent of GDP.

Banking Times, Vietnam Economic Times