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

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The insurance market saw total insured value reach VND11.7 quadrillion (US$524 billion) from 2011-15, said Phung Ngoc Khanh, head of the Finance Ministry's Insurance Supervisory Authority (ISA) during a press conference in Ha Noi on March 29.

Of the sum, VND10 quadrillion was paid by enterprises from different sectors, while VND1 quadrillion was recorded in the life insurance sector and VND700 trillion in health insurance, Khanh told the conference, which reviewed the results of insurance market development plan during the period.

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.

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.

Khanh 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 VND84.3 trillion, or 2 per cent of gross domestic product.

The total indemnity fund during the period was nearly VND130.4 trillion, up 2.36 times from 2010.

Deputy Director of ISA Doan Anh Tuan said insurance providers had accumulated VND157 trillion to reinvest in the country's economy.

"They contributed more than VND5 trillion of corporate income tax to the State budget. About VND2.57 trillion was sourced from life insurance providers and the remainder from non-life insurance businesses," said Tuan.

Tuan 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.

He took riots damaged foreign investor's property in industrial parks Ha Tinh, Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces in 2014 as an example, 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 VND144 billion, but it is now VND916 billion for the investors in the three provinces. This contributed to helping investors feel secure but also restore their belief in working in Viet Nam, he said. — VNS