To maximise profits as well as dividends for shareholders, over the last period, many world insurers merged companies in America, Africa and Europe to focus on developing the potential Asian market including Vietnam.
In the announcement of business results at the beginning of 2018, Ng Keng Hooi, Chair and CEO of AIA said the Group has been present in Asia for nearly one decade and is operating in the most dynamic and attractive life insurance markets in the world.
“With its long history of operations in Asia, AIA group has suitable business strategy with large opportunities from the sharp change in the society and tremendous economic growth of this region”, said Ng Keng Hooi.
Talking to the press at the recent meeting, Tina Nguyen CEO of generali Vietnam said at the end of 2017, generali attained 4.9 billion euro profits, the highest figure in the history of the insurer from Italy.
“In the coming time, generali will review markets with small market share, high development potential such as the America, Africa to focus on markets with larger development potential, especially in Asia. generali will invest strongly in this region”, said Tina Nguyen.
According to Tina Nguyen, compared to other markets in Asia, Vietnam’s market share still remains modest. However, it is always paid attention to by generali leaders because this is quite a potential market and may help generali become one among five biggest companies in Asia. In 2017, the number of customers of generali Vietnam increased to more than 200,000 people.
Generali Vietnam is also one among six companies with the highest new premium revenue in the market and one of the companies with the new premium revenue reaching more than one trillion dong. generali Vietnam’s Gencasa system currently has 63 general agent offices and customer service centers nationwide and is expected to expand further in the future.
“Generali Vietnam’s strategy in 2018 is to continue expanding distribution channels such as agents and group insurance, launching simple products and more beneficial products for customers, especially increasing customers’ experience which is one of the issues that the global generali has always paid highlighted”, emphasized Tina Nguyen.
Sharing at the launching ceremony of the latest insurance product, CEO of AIA Vietnam Wayne Besant said over the last period, AIA Group has limited its investment in America as well as Europe to focus on developing markets in 18 countries in Asia. Therefore, the group has understood quite clearly the psychology of Asian people.
For AIA group, Vietnam has always been the market that receives the highest attention. Therefore, during product development period, AIA has always considered the compatibility with this market.
“Though Vietnam is the market with young population, in fact, it is among Top 10 countries with the fattest aging population in the world. Therefore, there need to have suitable protection products for this customer segment in Vietnam. This is also the reason why AIA Vietnam has introduced the life-long fatal disease insurance product”, said Wayne Besant.
According to industry experts, considering the current context of Vietnam life insurance, though competition in the market is increasingly intense, it has always created opportunities for insurance businesses, whether long time players or new entrants, apart from creating an attractive niche market.
“Though the penetration of life insurance in Vietnam market is basically low, as it has large growth potential, this is a suitable moment to invest”, said CEO of an insurer that has just supplemented investment.
According to insurers, the segments of young customers are now forecasted to better off, even getting richer in the future due to the significant increase in income and savings as well as protection demand.
Of which, health is the most powerful factor for consumers, and is the top priority of 90 percent of customers, while playing very important role in the development and enhancement of awareness of life insurance in Vietnam. Therefore, the product development division at insurance companies has always focused on studying to introduce insurance products to meet diversified demand of this segment.
A recent study by Nielsen also pointed out that Vietnamese people tend to save the most in the world and health is one of their top concerns. Vietnamese people are also spending more to improve the quality of their daily lives, as well as start to have long-term plans for themselves as well as family members to have the best preparation in terms of finance, ensuring that life quality will not decrease when they get old, especially when their average life expectancy is increasing.
It can be seen that the demand for long-term protection of Vietnamese people will become an inevitable trend in the near future, especially when more and more young people want to develop their career in the direction of freelance.
With an increasingly developing economy, the growing popularity of the internet and smart handheld devices is promoting more investment in most businesses, both in infrastructure and technology as well as changing habit of Vietnamese consumers. Asia, including Vietnam, is seen to become the centrepiece of the global insurance revolution, especially the investment movement into InsurTech (technology-insurance).
According to industry experts, Asia will be the most visible place for the impact of these innovations, especially when a large part of the population that has long been “untouched” by insurers will now get access to modern insurance products, which are designed specifically, suitable to their own demand and especially they will experience quite new insurance services under the support of the technology.
In fact, in the current Vietnamese market, not only leading insurance companies such as Bao Viet, Prudential, Manulife, AIA Vietnam, generali Vietnam, etc. but insurance companies in lower group have also considered customer connection technology as one of the most important strategies in their development process.
