BANGKOK, Dec 13 – Countries in Southeast Asia need to work on joint insurance policies, particularly for automobiles, to prepare for increasing inter-country driving when the region becomes the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong said today.
Addressing the15th ASEAN Insurance Regulators Meeting (AIRM) in Bangkok, he said ASEAN’s state and private sectors will have to cooperate in facilitating the move.
Regional insurance may also include natural disaster coverage, he added.
Pravet Ong-artsithikul, secretary general of the Office of the Insurance Commission, said it is necessary to study the insurance policies of each Southeast Asian country so as to set a regional standard.
He said that cross country sales of insurance will be possible in the future while the private sector in Southeast Asia will have to work closer in alliances.
Thailand’s insurance business has grown steadily with total insurance premiums of Bt460 billion (about US$15 billion) in the third quarter, representing an increase of 19.08 per cent.
