Mr Lee Eui Chul, General Director of Shinhan Life Vietnam​

Shinhan Life Vietnam Company launched its services in Viet Nam on January 25 at a time when there is fierce competition in the market with 19 players. Its General Director, Mr Lee Eui Chul, spoke to Viet Nam News about the company’s development strategy.

As a new insurer in the market, what are your company’s plans and targets to begin with? What will you do to achieve the targets as your company arrives in Viet Nam at a tough time when the country has been seriously affected by the COVID-19 pandemic?

Six years ago we did market research and decided to invest in the Vietnamese life insurance market. Just seven months after we applied, we received the establishment license from the Ministry of Finance on February 8, 2021.

The pandemic brought about serious consequences in the country, resulting in great difficulty in our preparation process. However, I and all company members are very proud to have overcome the challenges and put our business into operation as planned.

It is hard to predict how the pandemic will pan out in future. However, I think the post-Covid period is likely to be a fresh market with excellent prospects for Shinhan Life. Our parent company, Shinhan Life, entered the Vietnamese market with the goal of providing protective insurance products to Vietnamese through new sales channels that differ from existing ones.

The Vietnamese insurance market is now very competitive. How does Shinhan Life plan to compete and what advantages does the company have?

Shinhan Life will find its own niche in the market.

Shinhan Life’s biggest advantage in Korea has been its more than 20 years of serving and approaching clients through a range of channels and creating new trends. That is a huge advantage for Shinhan Life Vietnam when entering the Vietnamese market. We will continue to build on the advantages, knowledge and experience to create our own path in this market.

Shinhan Life Vietnam’s vision is ‘New Life, Adding New Value to Life’. We will add unprecedented value to the lives of Vietnamese clients.

Through the synergy with companies operating in the Vietnamese market under the Shinhan umbrella, we will deliver new value to Vietnamese clients, providing protective products at reasonable prices via sales channels conveniently and quickly accessible to the middle class.

Our slogan is ‘Bring Wonders to Life’. I and other Shinhan Life staff will bring interesting surprises to clients. We will approach the middle class with a new, vigorous and dynamic image and conquer the market.

The official opening and business launch event in the Vietnamese market will mark Shinhan Life's journey towards providing the best insurance products and services to customers.

What is going to be Shinhan Life's strategy in its first year of operations?

The business strategy for the first year of operations, 2022, is based on the company's vision and slogan. The overall strategy is ‘building a foundation for sustainable growth through differentiation and localisation’. To support this strategy, three strategic pillars have been formed: Secure, Creative, Friendly.

Secure means stabilising and upgrading our corporate infrastructure. We will stabilise the IT infrastructure.

Creative has at its core the differentiation of channels and products. We will institute a new way, promoting sales of protective insurance products with a focus on contactless channels.

Friendly means creating a company that customers can approach conveniently and in a friendly manner.

You have said the Vietnamese market is changing. Can you tell us how it is changing and what Shinhan Life will do to seize the opportunity?

In the market, most insurance companies provide savings and investment products mainly through direct channels and bancassurance channels. There is also a focus on investments to taking advantage of high interest rates here.

However, a period of low interest rates has begun. The existing sales and management strategies of insurance companies will no longer work well. In future, competitiveness will depend on how many protective insurance products they offer and how they offer them.

To gain an edge in the protective insurance market, we will soon set up telemarketing and digital channels. The child leukemia insurance product is one of our first trial offerings. Based on this, we will work out the right business model for the market and build a foundation from small successes.

As I said earlier, the Vietnamese insurance market is in transition. The new rules of the game will come into effect soon. We want to be a game changer through a growth strategy unlike that of other companies, which are already large and focused on savings insurance.

Shinhan Life Vietnam is a flexible new company, and with our passion and ambition, we will explore a new way that no one has before.