Trendsetting US Insurance Firm Marks 10 Years of Operation in China

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, October 02, 2002

Trendsetting US Insurance Firm Marks 10 Years of Operation in China

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American International Assurance Co., Ltd. (AIA), a leading US insurance firm, has celebrated 10 years of business operation in China, describing the past decade as one of rapid growth for the company, as well as a starting point for China's insurance market to meet international challenges.

AIA was the first foreign insurance firm approved to do business in China, with its Shanghai branch established in September 1992.

"I'm very happy to have witnessed the company's growth in Shanghai," Xu Zhengguang, former general manager of the branch, said before he left the company in July.

"It was an extremely challenging experience and there's nothing to regret," said Xu of the post where he had toiled over the past nine-odd years.

The debut of a foreign rivals brought tremendous impact on China's insurance market. At a time when few Shanghai residents knew anything about life insurance, AIA's insurance agents, largely promising, young and energetic locals, pounded the pavement, going in to office buildings and households to introduceand deliver their services.

Under such impact, local insurance firms soon came to realize that it would not work to sit in the office and wait idly for clients. Most of them started to train their own agents, and today, more than 20,000 insurance agents are working in Shanghai municipality.

When the fluctuating interest rates on bank savings put many life insurance providers under heavy repayment pressure two years ago, AIA introduced to the booming Shanghai market a "participating insurance," which had proven successful in the international market and allowed the insurers and the insured to share risks and profits alike.

Today, AIA has opened branches and sub-branches in four other big and medium-size cities including Beijing, Suzhou, Dongguan and Jiangmen.

In 2001, the company's insurance premium in China exceeded 210.936 billion yuan (25 billion US dollars), a 30-percent year-on-year rise.

By the end of 2001, AIA and the other 13 foreign insurance companies had taken 13.6 percent of Shanghai's insurance market, according to figures provided by the Shanghai Insurance Supervisory Office.

"Like all my colleagues, I'm confident about the company's next decade in China," said a staff member of company's Shanghai branch.

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