Vietnam's non-life insurance premium revenues rose 25 percent on-year to 3.2 trillion Vietnamese dong (VND) (nearly 201.3 million U.S. dollars) in the first half of this year, according to the Vietnam Insurers Association on Monday.

In the period, vehicle insurance premium was the highest, standing at 812.5 billion VND (over 51.1 million dollars), up 8 percent, followed by marine insurance, 361.5 billion VND (more than 22.7 million dollars), up 28 percent.

Regarding the local non-life insurance market, between January and June, the Vietnam Insurance and Finance Group (Baoviet Holdings) held the lion share of 32.2 percent, followed by the Ho Chi Minh City Insurance Company with 24 percent.

To foster local life and non-life insurance market, whose annual growth rate was 29 percent in the 1993-2004 period, Vietnam will center on improving its legal environment to meet international criteria, maintaining the close management mechanism to ensure fair competition and stable development, and fulfilling commitments on international cooperation in the insurance industry, said the association.

Vietnam posted insurance premium revenues of 15 trillion VND ( 943.4 million dollars), including non-life insurance premium turnovers of 5.9 trillion VND (nearly 371.1 million dollars), in 2005, surging 18.2 percent over the previous year.

Vietnam currently houses eight life insurers, 16 non-life ones and one re-insurance company, many of them joint ventures and wholly foreign-invested enterprises.

Source: Xinhua