Burma is set to open up its life insurance
market to private companies for the first time in almost fifty
years, the Myanmar Times has reported.

The state-run life insurer, Myanma Insurance,
has reportedly sold 180 application forms to interested parties,
although it is said foreign life companies will not be allowed to
enter the market.

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Any business submitting an application to sell
life insurance will require capital of at least MMK6bn ($7.1m).

Hong Kong’s AIA Insurance and US firm Star
Insurance are said to have expressed an interest in the Burmese
market, but U Mg Maung Thein, general manager of Myanma Insurance,
was reported as saying: “Currently foreign insurance companies will
not be allowed to run insurance businesses in Myanmar because the
government would like private domestic companies to set up in
preparation for the ASEAN Free Trade Area in 2015.”

Since 1965 life insurance in Burma has been
monopolised by the state-run Myanma Insurance, but this year the
government has decided to open the market to ‘facilitate economic
reforms’ as well as better serving the insurance needs of the
Burmese people.

The sector is currently served by over 800
brokers working for Myanma, and they expect the reforms to provide
them with a greater variety of products to promote.

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U Aung Lwin, vice-chairman of Union of Myanmar
Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, was reported as
saying: “It is a good thing to allow private companies to run an
insurance business. Customers would have more choice and there will
be more private agents for marketing. Before, only a few people
knew about an insurance policy, premium or pay-out
regulations.”