In Q308, the key change is that we have incorporated much more information about the companies thatare operating across the regions of which each country is a part. We have sought to make it much clearerwho is operating in each country and under what name(s). Perhaps equally importantly, our profilesmake it plain which multinational companies are not operating in each country.

In the Asia Pacific, we profile 23 companies. These are AEGON, AIG, Allianz, Aviva, AXA, Cardif,Fortis, Generali, Groupama, HDI-Gerling, HSBC Insurance, ING Group, Liberty Mutual,Manulife, MetLife, Prudential Financial, Prudential plc, QBE, RSA, Sun Life Financial, TheHartford, Principal Financial Group and Zurich Financial Services.

We also look at various local firms that are active in the region: some of these companies rank, in termsof the premiums that they write, among the largest in the world.For almost all the countries whose reports we are updating, we are also able to include actual data forcalendar 2007: this was not the case for our Q208 reports.

In 2007, total premiums in Malaysia rose by 8% to MYR31,787mn. Non-life premiums rose by 4% toMYR11,488mn, while Life premiums rose by 11% to MYR20,299mn.

Between now and the end of the forecast period, we expect that annual Non-life premiums will grow byMYR7,057mn, while annual Life premiums should increase by MYR6,517mn. Growth in Non-lifepremiums should be driven by the general growth in nominal GDP plus a rise in Non-life penetrationfrom the current level of 1.88% to 2.15%. Growth in Life premiums should be driven by the change in theoverall population and a rise in life density from US$227.53 to US$300.00 per capita.

BMI’s Insurance Business Environment Rating is 63.5.

Malaysia Industry SWOT