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Singapore. The Group chief executive officer at Singapore’s Great Eastern Holdings, the insurance arm of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, recognizes the challenges in selling insurance policies in Indonesia — especially life insurance — all too well.

But due to the nation’s strong growth prospects and the company’s new marketing strategies, Christopher Wei is upbeat about growing Great Eastern’s business in the archipelago.

“Great Eastern is absolutely committed, along with our parent OCBC bank — we want to build our presence in Indonesia,” Wei said on Friday.

The company has maintained its presence so far through Great Eastern Life Indonesia, its local subsidiary since 1996. It is now supported by 2,000 agents and has 30,000 insurance policy holders. It offers life, accident, health and medical insurance.

He believes that as “there is a lot of wealth being created” in Indonesia’s society, this in turn will prompt “people to naturally move toward products that have a higher return,” including insurance.

Wei acknowledged, however, the challenge of selling insurance products in Indonesia, where consumers have shown little interest in buying insurance products for the purposes of protection — while on the marketing side, the nation lacks qualified insurance agents.

Indonesian government data showed a combined assets of all insurance companies last year, including life and general insurance, were equivalent to just 1.67 percent of the nation’s $830 billion economy.

“We have to come out and educate and explain about the product,” Wei said, after Great Eastern invited journalists from Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, including the Jakarta Globe, to attend a press briefing in Singapore on Friday.

Wei says that Great Eastern wanted to change the way people look at life insurance, as the company plans to actively help customers live healthier and longer lives through what it calls its “Live Great” program.

“Great Eastern is no longer just a life insurance company, it is a life company,” he said, adding that it would provide clients with comprehensive information and advice to help them live healthier lives.

Specifically in Indonesia, Wei said, the company will boost cooperation with its affiliate, OCBC NISP bank, which operates 400 offices in 62 cities throughout the nation.