Vietnam: 25% of housing blocks in Hanoi covered by insurance
Source: Asia Insurance Review | May 2018
Asia Vietnam
Only 179 or around a quarter of 718 multi-storey apartment buildings in Hanoi were covered by fire insurance as at 4 April, according to the Hanoi fire prevention and control police department. More than half of the 179 apartment buildings which are insured are high-class buildings, according to Vietnam News.
The Vietnamese capital city saw 1,100 fires for the 15 months to 31 March 2018, according to the municipal fire prevention and control police department. The fires killed 24 people, injured 18 others and caused losses of about VNÐ617bn ($27.4m). In the first three months this year alone, Hanoi saw 280 fires, of which 87 occurred in multi-storey buildings.
To tackle the problem, the department said that it would conduct a general inspection of fire prevention and fighting in high buildings, industrial parks, commercial and entertainment centres. The inspection teams have begun random checks in provinces for a month from 10 April.
Meanwhile, an official decree stipulates that construction works which face a high risk of fire, including multi-storey apartment buildings, hotels, kindergartens, hospitals and petrol stations, must buy fire insurance. The insurance must cover all parts of the construction work such as houses, machines, equipment and raw materials.
Hanoi now has more than 1,100 high-storey buildings, of which 718 are apartment buildings. A