HANOI, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's insurance market has reported positive growth despite facing many difficulties due to economic slowdown and the trend is forecast to continue in the near future, Vietnam News reported Friday.
According to the Department of Insurance Management and Supervision under the Ministry of Finance, as of Nov. 30 this year, total assets of Vietnamese insurance enterprises were estimated to reach nearly 913.37 trillion Vietnamese dong (37.6 billion U.S. dollars), up 11.12 percent over the same period last year.
The insurance industry re-invested 762.58 trillion dong (31.5 billion dollars) into the economy, up 12.78 percent over the same period last year.
Vietnam News quoted experts as saying that the country's insurance market has much room for development, citing that the ratio of insurance premium revenue to gross domestic product (GDP) is currently just more than 3 percent, lower than the ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) average rate of 3.35 percent, the Asian average rate of 5.37 percent and the world average rate of 6.3 percent.
Vietnam now has about 12 percent of the population participating in life insurance.
By 2025, the average insurance premium revenue to the GDP ratio in Vietnam is forecasted to reach 3.5 percent, said the experts. ■
