The Vietnamese Ministry of Finance has granted an operating licence to the Generali Vietnam Life Insurance Company, a branch of Italy’s leading life insurance group Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A.

Wholly owned by the Generali group, the company is headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, where a representative office opened at the end of 2009, Generali said on April 21.

Generali highly valued the untapped potential of the Vietnamese insurance sector, as evidenced by its growth rate of 22 percent last year, a population of 88 million people coupled with a low insurance penetration ratio of 1.6 percent of GDP and a domestic saving ratio close to 30 percent of GDP.

Last year, Generali’s revenues from insurance operations in Asia rose by 43.6 percent. Established in 1831 in Trieste, last year, Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A was assessed the world’s second largest insurance supplier in terms of profitability, behind AXA group of France./.