Asia to drive Manulife Financial’s growth

Has this particular trip brought you some fresh observations about the Vietnamese life insurance market?

Yes, it gives me the chance to talk with a lot of investors and analysts and increasingly familiarise myself with our operations in Vietnam. This is important for me because I need a deep understanding of each market where we do business.

What are your conclusions?

Vietnam’s economy is facing some challenges involving limited productivity, investors’ low confidence, the banking sector’s temporary instability. But fundamentally, Vietnam has a large population where a lot of people have been entering into the middle class. We are very optimistic about Vietnam and so, for us, the most important thing is to keep building a solid foundation here and make sure we are well positioned for the future.

I think in this growing economy, the only and most important metric for us is the value of new businesses we are generating because that will turn into future profit.

Manulife Financial has paid much interest in micro insurance in Vietnam. Will you invest more in this business?

Manulife’s involvement in micro insurance is primarily here in Vietnam. It is very important to us because it helps people, particularly those in the rural areas of Vietnam, to get a step on the ladder. We also see it as something that helps us build our brand and our future client base in the country.

Many other life insurers are aggressively investing in other distribution channels outside their traditional agent networks to expand footprints in Vietnam. How will you respond to this trend?

We are expanding our agent network which have been vital to our growth in Asia and remain the first choice for most of our clients.

About half of our policy holders across Asia buy life insurance products through our agents. In Vietnam, the number may be significantly higher. These figures are fantastic, but we have to respond to the changes taking place in the market and offer alternative means of distribution to reach out to our client base.

Our philosophy is that we have to meet the needs of customers. Actually we see a lot of opportunities to expand into other distribution channels like bancassurance in a country like Vietnam.

As the finance captain at Manulife, are you happy with the group’s business results in Vietnam and Asia as well? What are your strategic priorities in the upcoming time?

With one-third of our earnings and almost half of our total insurance sales being generated in Asia, this region is increasingly important for Manulife Financial. I am very happy with the results in Asia and we see a huge potential here.

To sustain our success in Asia, an engine of Manulife’s future growth, the most important is to grow our Asian footprint and invest in our Asian business. As such, we plan to build a top-tier, pan-Asian life insurance franchise that is well positioned to satisfy the needs of the region’s fast-growing customer base.

Another one of our priorities is to grow our wealth and asset management businesses in Asia, the U.S. and Canada. We aim to become a globally leading asset management company, providing simple and innovative investment solutions to retail and institutional investors.

Asian financial markets are expected to face continuing difficulties this year. Do you think that will hurt your business?

Our operations are spread across almost all countries in Asia, providing good diversification. This means when some markets experience problems, the others with more favourable conditions can compensate. For example, some Southeast Asian markets like the Philippines and Indonesia are having very good economic conditions.