Insurance brokers introduce their products to customers. Viet Nam is currently home to 61 insurance providers, including 29 non-life insurance firms, 17 life insurance enterprises and two re-insurance and 12 insurance broker companies.— Photo vneconomy.vn

HÀ NỘI (VNS) — The insurance market saw total insured value reach VNĐ11.7 quadrillion (US$524 billion) from 2011-15, said Phùng Ngọc Khánh, head of the Finance Ministry’s Insurance Supervisory Authority (ISA) during a press conference in Ha Noi on Tuesday.

Of the sum, VNĐ10 quadrillion was paid by enterprises from different sectors, while VNĐ1 quadrillion was recorded in the life insurance sector and VNĐ700 trillion in health insurance, Khánh told the conference, which reviewed the results of insurance market development plan during the period.

Việt Nam is currently home to 61 insurance providers, including 29 non-life insurance firms, 17 life insurance enterprises and two re-insurance and 12 insurance broker companies.

Nearly 10 million people are covered by health insurance and 30 million people are insured against aviation and railway accidents, in addition to about 12 million students with health insurance cards.

Khánh commented that the sector fulfilled goals set in the 2011-15 insurance market development strategy with an average growth rate of 16 per cent per year. By the end of 2015, total revenue was estimated at more than VNĐ84.3 trillion, or 2 per cent of gross domestic product.

The total indemnity fund during the period was nearly VNĐ130.4 trillion, up 2.36 times from 2010.

Deputy Director of ISA Doãn Anh Tuấn said insurance providers had accumulated VNĐ157 trillion to reinvest in the country’s economy.

“They contributed more than VNĐ5 trillion of corporate income tax to the State budget. About VNĐ2.57 trillion was sourced from life insurance providers and the remainder from non-life insurance businesses,” said Tuấn.

Tuấn said the insurance sector was the ‘midwife’ of the economy. As many as 80 per cent of construction projects and major State projects were insured.

When riots damaged foreign investor’s property in industrial parks in Hà Tĩnh, Bình Dương and Đồng Nai provinces, insuarance firms were one of the first agencies on the scene and worked with investors to solve damages, he said.

Indemnity over the incidents was estimated at VNĐ144 billion, but it is now VNĐ916 billion for the investors in the three provinces. This contributed to helping investors feel secure but also restore their belief in working in Việt Nam, he said. — VNS