Vietnam's banking, insurance develop after WTO accession
12/9/2008 17:17
Vietnam's insurance and banking industries have taken advantage of its
integration with the global economy after two years with the World Trade
Organization (WTO), local newspaper Vietnam News today quoted delegates to a
domestic seminar as saying.
"The Vietnamese insurance market has shown
vigorous growth over the past two years, despite domestic inflation and the
fluctuation of gold prices, securities and global finance. For example, a credit
crisis in the United States late last year led to the escalation of petrol,
iron, steel and rice prices," general secretary of the Vietnam Insurance
Association Phung Dac Loc said at the seminar on reviewing WTO impacts on the
two industries yesterday.
Vietnam's non-life insurance earned revenues of 5.5
trillion Vietnamese dong (VND) (US$329.3 million) in the first half of this
year, a year-on-year rise of 43 percent. Meanwhile, the life-insurance's figure
was over five trillion VND (US$299.4 million), up nearly 13.5
percent.
Vietnam's banking industry has made significant development in the
last two years, generating an open market and developing both in quantity and
scale, chairman of the Vietnam Small- and Medium- Sized Enterprises Association,
Cao Si Kiem, said at the seminar.
"Vietnam has begun to attract large
investment from foreign banks by allowing them to open representative branches
and establish wholly foreign-owned banks," said the chairman.
Xinhua
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