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ndonesia’s life insurance industry has grown the fastest among the ASEAN countries, but its penetration in the population is the least.

According to the Indonesian Life Insurance Association (AAJI), the number of policyholders in the country increased by almost 48 percent to 16.75 million as of last year from 11.32 million as of 2009.

AAJI executive director Stephen Juwono said Friday that 2010 saw great momentum for the life insurance industry due to its rapid growth.

He said that total premium revenue of the life insurance industry last year increased by 26.14 percent to Rp 75.98 trillion (US$87.72 billion) from Rp 60.23 trillion in 2009.

Revenue from new premiums increased by 30.32 percent to Rp 52.66 trillion from Rp 40.41 trillion and revenue from renewals increased by 17.62 percent to Rp 23.31 trillion from Rp 19.82 trillion.

Of the Rp 75.98 trillion, Rp 44.73 trillion was collected from unit-linked customers and the remaining Rp 31.24 trillion from traditional insurance customers.

AAJI chairwoman Evelina Pietruschka told reporters the premium revenue growth resulted from an improvement in people’s awareness about the importance of life insurance and the 6.1 percent growth of the economy.

Besides the growth in premium revenue, the industry also recorded a 20.64 percent increase to Rp 23.91 trillion in profits from investments in 2010 from Rp 19.82 trillion in 2009.

The industry’s total investments rose 23.58 percent to Rp 157.34 trillion from Rp 127.32 trillion. Out of the total investments, 78.21 percent or Rp 123.6 trillion was invested in stocks, mutual funds as well as government and private bonds. Only Rp 20.14 trillion was invested in time deposits.

The industry’s total assets rose by 24.40 percent to Rp 174.77 trillion as of 2010 from Rp 140.49 trillion as of 2009.

The total amount paid out on insurance claims rose by 25.78 percent to Rp 48.69 trillion in 2010 from Rp 38.71 trillion in 2009. Evelina said that the association was targeting the industry to increase by a minimum of 25 percent per annum, so that its total assets would reach Rp 500 trillion as of 2014.

She explained that to achieve the target, the association would educate students through an “Insurance Goes to Campus” program, advertise in mass media, hold road shows and campaign activities in some cities.

The association will also require all insurance agents to get licensed to promote people’s trust in the industry.

“All agents must join training by the association before they can start to sell insurance products to people in order to avoid insurance fraud,” she said.

“Since September 2010, all insurance agents in Indonesia have had licenses,” she added at a press conference at the new AAJI office on Jl. Sudirman, Central Jakarta. (drs)