According to information released by the Insurance Association of Cambodia, Cambodia's nationwide premium income in Q1 2017 grew 24% compared with 2016. Among them, non-life insurers' first-quarter premium income was US$216 million, up 6.3% year on year; life premiums were US$146 million, up 63.5%.
Cambodia is an ancient civilization with a long history. Beginning in the 1970s, the country endured prolonged warfare; only in 1993 did Cambodia enter a new era of peace and development. Since 2012, Cambodia's GDP growth has trended upward despite fluctuations, reaching 10.51% in 2016—the highest in five years. In 2016, Cambodia's per capita GDP was US$1,235 and per capita income US$1,300, as the country gradually moves out of the low-income ranks. The demographic dividend and an export-oriented economy are important drivers of Cambodia's development; agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery account for the largest share of the economy, while the proportions of manufacturing and construction have risen slightly.
Before 2001, the state-owned insurer CAMINCO (later restructured into a private company with 75% private ownership) was the only non-life insurer and also performed the function of regulating the insurance market on behalf of the Cambodian government. After Cambodia's Insurance Law formally took effect in 2001, private insurers gradually emerged, and financial institutions from neighboring countries—including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam—gradually entered the Cambodian insurance market, establishing joint-venture non-life insurers.
To date, Cambodia has only 6 non-life insurers, 1 reinsurer and 6 life insurers nationwide. The non-life market is the main source of premiums, but life insurance is growing most notably. Over the past five years, apart from a growth slowdown in 2009 under the impact of the financial crisis, the non-life sector has maintained double-digit growth every year. The life sector only started in 2012—just five years of development—and in 2016, 51,000 new customers purchased life insurance.
According to an Insurance Association of Cambodia report, in 2016 Cambodia's insurance industry recorded income of US$113.6 million, up 35.6% from US$83.7 million in 2015. General insurance grew 14%, while life insurance surged 95%.
Huy Vatharo, chairman of the Insurance Association of Cambodia, believes that driven by rising insurance awareness, economic growth and investment, the local insurance market is expected to keep growing.