Nine years of patience have paid off for ACE Limited?s largest unit ? Philadelphia-based ACE INA ? with the announcement that the company is being given a licence to write life insurance in Vietnam.

ACE INA set up a ?representative office? in Vietnam in 1996, a year after the US re-established diplomatic relations with the country.

It has been a long wait for ACE, which has pumped millions of dollars into the country to underwrite social initiatives in the areas of education, safety, culture, economy, and business.

In addition, ACE has worked with the Vietnamese government in bringing insurance regulations up to international standards. It has also provided direct business opportunities and reinsurance capacity to Vietnam?s domestic insurers.

The country has however been very careful in opening up its financial service sector to outside players, according to a report in the Washington Times in early 2004.

Initially AIG was the only US insurer allowed into the life arena, while both ACE and New York Life waited for permission to enter a market that is expected to be lucrative.

Yesterday, New York Life ? which, like ACE, has had a representative office in Vietnam for some years ? was still waiting on its life insurance licence to be granted, according to a spokesman for the company.

On Tuesday ACE said it expects to have its licence in hand by the middle of the year and said it will waste no time in ramping up the operation. Simultaneous to the bids by ACE and New York Life to write life insurance, other international insurers have been queuing up for non-life insurance licences.

Although taking a methodical approach to development of its legal and regulatory framework and adopting a cautious approach to who it lets in, it is understood that Vietnam?s efforts to join the World Trade Organisation are somewhat dependent on the opening up of its financial services sector.

ACE CEO Evan Greenberg said: ?Vietnam is a country with a bright and prosperous future, given the size of its population and industrious nature of its people. Vietnam is making great strides in its efforts to join the World Trade Organisation, and accession would be a major step in insuring its place in the world economy.

?Our Vietnam operation is a milestone in our long-term strategy to build a life insurance presence in Asia.?

A sense of why ACE may have waited so patiently to enter this market is clear when one looks at the nearly untapped potential of the fledgling market. AIG?s Vietnam representative Terence Anderson said that in 2003 the Vietnamese life insurance industry had mobilised $600 million, and that had by no means saturated the market, according to the Washington Times report.

ACE?s formal application for a licence was made to the Vietnamese Government in 2002. That same year then-CEO and current chairman Brian Duperreault ? along with Mr. Greenberg who was vice-chairman at the time ? made a trip to Hanoi call on the Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister for a series of meetings in support of ACE INA?s application.

Another visit was made by both Mr. Duperreault and Mr. Greenberg again in March last year, this time meeting with Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and Finance Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung.

ACE INA is the largest component of the ACE Group. ACE conducts business in about 50 countries around the world and has a well-established presence in Asia.