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AKARTA: PT Sun Life Financial Indonesia, the local unit of Canadian insurance company Sun Life, plans to boost its total premium income this year by doubling the number of its sales agents from 4,110 and opening 10 sales offices throughout the country to add to the 38 existing offices.

President director Bert Paterson said Friday that to achieve the target, last year’s whole year figure was not available, but during the January-September period, Sun Life’s total premium topped Rp 500 billion (US$55.03 million), a 4 percent increase from Rp 480 billion during the same period in 2009.

Paterson added that the company would also strengthen its sharia products to tap into the country’s fast growing market.

“Our sharia unit is a significant development, a great milestone for our company. It will help us reach a new market in Indonesia. Islamic finance is going to be higher than conventional finance over the next few years,” Paterson said.

Last year Sun Life launched two sharia products that used risk sharing and investment with underlying assets, instead of transfer risk of conventional insurance products.

Sharia division head Srikandi Utami said she expected sharia products would contribute 25 percent to this year’s total premium.

“We will reach untapped groups such as a number of Islamic communities,” she said. — JP