“Foreign insurance companies will be allowed to run in Myanmar under the arrangement of the Insurance Supervisory Committee”, said Sandar Oo, Managing Director of Myanma Insurance on February 22, 2018 at Sule Shangri-La Hotel in Yangon.
If foreign insurance frms are allowed to operate here, they will bring here investment, technology and expertise. Then we will able to give insurance protection to the people. Through cooperation, we will gain experience. Another thing is that we will have our rivals. As we have the committee for management affairs, we can seek ways to beneft both local and foreign companies. Foreign companies will be entering our country soon. The supervisory committee will announce soon. As there are few people who have insurance cover at Myanma Insurance, foreign companies will have many chances here”,Sandar Oo added.
We’re going to speed up liberalization, meaning we are going to allow foreign players,” said Thant Zin, an offcial in the Financial Regulation Department under the Ministry of Finance and Planning. “Over 20 foreign companies subsequently opened representative offces, but they are still waiting for the chance to do business. And Myanma Insurance’s monopoly was replaced by an “oligopoly” of 12 local companies that can only compete on customer service,” he added.
Myint Han, Advisor of First National Insurance said, “In a developing country, joint venture is necessary. Without foreign investment, we cannot develop. When it comes to investment, the amount the government has set
for an insurance company to invest is large. We need insurance technology rather than money. Expertise is the main thing we need to improve our insurance service. We have now few experienced people. When we run our insurance companies in partnership with foreign frms, we will improve. The government has to balance the need to protect local firms and the need to liberalize the market – something ASEAN and other international players are calling for. Myanmar’s membership in the ASEAN economic community means it has a commitment to liberalize a wide range of sectors including banking, insurance and aviation.” Thuang Han, Director of CB Insurance said,” Local firms are eager to see restrictions on products and prices lifted, and welcome government approval for an industry association that will be consulted on the process. The previous government prevented frms from forming an insurance industry association, but with the regulator’s blessing an association should be in place in the next few months.”
