Myanmar admits foreign life insurers
Dec 5th 2019YANGONKO PHOE THAR is a cheery 22-year-old liquor-store clerk from Mandalay, a city in central Myanmar. Death, and other less-certain future misfortunes, are far from his mind. A host of insurance companies newly arrived in the country would like to change that. Last week the finance ministry issued licences to foreign life insurers for the first time. Five—AIA, Chubb, Dai-Ichi Life, Manulife and Prudential PLC—have been permitted to operate as wholly owned subsidiaries. Others are required to find local partners.Foreign insurers have long licked their lips at the prospect of moving into Myanmar. South-East Asia’s largest mainland country, it is home to 54m people, more than half of whom are under 30. Less than 4% of the population has insurance of any sort. But under military dictatorship, which ended in 2011, the market was monopolised by a state firm.Choose us for news analysis that respects your time and intelligenceSubscribe to The EconomistWe filter out the noise of the daily news cycle and analyse the trends that matterWe give you rigorous, deeply researched and fact-checked journalism. That’s why Americans named us their most trusted news source in 2017Available wherever you are—in print, digital and, uniquely, in audio, fully narrated by professional broadcastersThis website adheres to all nine of NewsGuard‘s standards of credibility and transparency.ORContinue reading this articleRegister with an email address