Leaves meaning

A year on since the Covid-19 pandemic first began Vietnamese are taking more control of their health and finance, driving greater interest in fitness and well-being along with insurance and retirement planning. — Photo courtesy of Manulife

HCM CITY — A year on since the Covid-19 pandemic first began Vietnamese are taking more control of their health and finance, driving greater interest in fitness and well-being along with insurance and retirement planning, as Asia looks to the longer-term impact of the disease, according to new research from Manulife.

The latest version of the ‘Manulife Asia Care Survey’ takes a closer look into customers’ concerns, priorities and aspirations, polling 4,000 people across the region who either own insurance or intend to buy it in the next six months, including around 520 in Việt Nam.

Nearly all (95 per cent) of those who worry most about Covid have made an effort on a personal level to improve their overall health, mostly through more regular exercise (58 per cent) and improved diet (54 per cent).

In Việt Nam, all the respondents said they had taken action to help them manage Covid, with 72 per cent saying this included doing more regular exercise. More people in Hà Nội (85 per cent) do more regular exercise than in HCM City (73 per cent).

Almost everyone is self-monitoring health, and Vietnamese pay the most attention to the number of steps walked (44 per cent) among the four emerging markets covered in the survey, against a regional average of 38 per cent.

Three out of five (60 per cent) of Vietnamese also own fitness wearables, well above the regional average of 46 per cent.

A large majority of Vietnamese (79 per cent) also said retirement planning has become more important since Covid-19 started, below the Philippines (90 per cent), Indonesia (88 per cent) and Malaysia (83 per cent) but higher than all the developed markets.

The regional average is 73 per cent.

This high level of interest in retirement ties in with their concerns about personal wealth.

In Việt Nam, more than half (52 per cent) thought their personal wealth would decline as a result of Covid-19. The rate was only higher in Hong Kong (58 per cent) and Singapore (55 per cent).

Aligned with taking better control of health and finance is an interest to buy new insurance.

In Việt Nam, a remarkable nine out of ten (91 per cent) said they intend to buy new insurance in the next six months, higher than anywhere else in the region. The regional average is 71 per cent.

The Vietnamese respondents were most interested in life, hospitalisation, accident and critical illness cover.

Three quarters (75 per cent) of Vietnamese respondents, again more than anywhere else in the region, said they prefer to manage their policies through digital means such as mobile apps, including for claims and payment.

The survey found that 71 per cent of them had spoken to an agent about purchasing insurance, well above the regional average of 64 per cent, with only Hong Kong (77 per cent) and mainland China (76 per cent) scoring higher.

“Vietnamese insurance customers are seeking more digital touchpoints that are safe, simple and convenient,” Sang Lee, CEO of Manulife Vietnam, said.

“While those digital habits are here for the long term, a good many still like to speak to their agents. This underscores the importance of our omnichannel approach, one that fully integrates digital, while maximising our human qualities of empathy, trust and a holistic understanding of our customers’ needs.” — VNS

The list was made by British journalist and travel writer Monisha Rajesh based on her book ‘Around the World in 80 Trains: A 45,000-Mile Adventure’.

According to the author, starting in Hanoi, the Reunification Express runs the length of the country right down to Ho Chi Minh City in the south, of which the finest segment is the first half of the journey to Da Nang.

Threading deep into the capital city, the train offers voyeuristic views into the backs of houses as families unwind for the night, before emerging into glorious sunshine the following morning, she wrote.

Climbing for miles through the jungle, banana leaves flapping against the windows, the train comes within inches of villagers’ walls and gardens, so close that you can make eye contact and wave.

At the final stretch, the train curls around the clifftops overlooking the sea where a finger of golden sand runs along the edge of the water in Lang Co Bay, before finally pulling into Da Nang Station.

Other train journeys in Asia are also named in the list, including Tokyo to Osaka, Japan, by Tokaido Shinkansen; Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, to Beijing, China, by the Trans-Mongolian Express; Bangkok to Nam Tok by Thailand’s Death Railway; Xining to Lhasa, China, by Qinghai-Tibet Railway; and Mumbai to Madgaon, India, by the Mondovi Express.

However, the boy later said he was overloaded and tired of online learning.

The same thing happened with her older son.

“It was easier to study online last year, when by sons were in fourth and eighth grades. They prefer online study because they did not have to get up early to go to school. But things are different now,” she said.

“As the kids are in the final grades of primary and secondary levels, they have to do more exercises and feel stressful,” she explained.

As schools have closed amid the new Covid-19 outbreak and organized online classes, Thu has had to buy one more laptop for the younger son. They also need a smartphone, in case of computer troubles.

Thu’s older son plans to take the entrance exam to the high school for the gifted, majoring in foreign languages. He has three learning periods in the morning and another three in the afternoon. He also has two English, one mathematics and one literature lessons with private tutors a week.

“My son complains that he feels tired and suffers from eyestrain as he has to sit too long in front of computer. However, he has no other choice than studying hard because he will have to take one of the two most important exams in his life this summer,” she said.

Thu hopes that the teachers at school will re-design their lesson plans so students don’t have to look at computer screen intently for too long.

La Mai Huyen, a mother in Hanoi, also is embarrassed as her children have to study online.

“My daughter is in second grade and she could not study online without the parents’ help. I have to leave a laptop at home for my son, a seventh grader, to study online and I am insecure about that. I am afraid that he would use the laptop to access the websites with bad content,” she explained.

Huyen also complained that she has become busier since the children have shifted to study online.

“I have to check notices from teachers sent to my phone regularly and I have to print documents that serve my children’s lessons,” she complained.

“This puts pressure on me. My mother urges me to study harder and harder all the time,“ he said.

Thuy Nga