Myanmar allows private insurers for first time since 1963

Myanmar has given permission to five private insurance companies to operate starting in June, ending a five-decade state monopoly, officials said Sunday. "We hope this will make market stronger," deputy finance minister Maung Maung Thein said. The five companies were chosen from 12 applicants who submitted license bids in September.
The government will hold off on allowing foreign investors to enter the insurance market until at least 2015, the deputy minister said. "We need to give these local companies a chance to gain some experience in this business and then we will allow foreign investors to do insurance," he said.
Myanmar had nationalised more than 70 insurance companies under its socialist policies in 1963. Only the government-owned Myanma Insurance Enterprise has been doing insurance business since then. Opening the sector to private competition is the latest of several economic reforms of the government of President Thein Sein since 2011.