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| Sunday, 4 August 2002 |
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Life insurance industry gets boost from Indian company by Chitra Weerasinghe The Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India signed a joint venture agreement with the Lankan business conglomerate, Bartleet Group, recently with a view to entering the life insurance market in the island. "By joining with one of the largest insurers in the world, we believe we will be able to give the industry further momentum and a more global stance," Eraj Wijesinghe, Group Managing Director, Bartleet Group of Companies said after the signing. V. Ashok, Counsellor (Economic and Commerce) Indian High Commission, said it was "very fitting that LIC should be coming to Sri Lanka now at an extremely interesting and exciting period of economic relations between the two countries." N.C. Sharma, LIC Managing Director, who was here to sign the agreement, recalled that they did "have a strong presence in the Ceylon insurance market" before the insurance industry was nationalised in 1961. LIC, a government institution which began operations 46 years ago, is said to be the number one insurance company in terms of size and operations in the Indian subcontinent. It holds 98 per cent of the market share in India - its strengths being the 792,112 trained professional agents and its ability to serve its policy holders effectively through its computerised network of 2,048 branch offices manned by 119,000 skilled employees. Different people have different needs at various stages of their lives and LIC offers a range of schemes to suit almost every "conceivable financial need." Among these schemes are 50 plans for men, women and children which take care of their needs such as endowment plans, money-back plans, pension plans, health insurance plans, polices for the handicapped and plans which provide add-on features (riders) on the payment of an extra small premium. According to Ashok, the Sri Lankan Government looks to India for support and has expressed its keenness to engage India in economic cooperation and so give a new dimension to economic relations between the two countries which are "bound by inseparable ties of religion, kinship and commerce". India is the largest exporter of goods to Sri Lanka and the 10th largest importer from Sri Lanka. "With the increasing liberalisation and opening up of the Indian economy, Sri Lanka can, and should, avail itself of the opportunities to increase its sales of produce and manufactured goods to one of the world's largest markets," said Ashok. India is seventh in terms of foreign investment to Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka has been the preferred destination for Indian investment in the SAARC region "with 50-70 per cent of our foreign investment being ploughed here; since June 2002 restrictions in respect of Lankan nationals has been removed," he said. "We are going to discuss possibilities of a joint marketing strategy and conduct a feasibility study on the futures market for tea in Colombo," he said. |
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