China to enhance risk-control in insurance sector: Huang Ju

Chinese senior official said Tuesday that China will enhance risk-control in the insurance sector while further promoting its development.

Chinese Vice Premier Huang Ju told foreign guests of an international insurance forum that China's insurance sector witnessed profit growth and quality improvement in the past two decades.

Huang, also member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said Chinese insurance companies are at preliminary stage with small business volume. China needs to learn from foreign experience, especially in monitoring aspect.

China has 69 insurance companies and more than half are foreign-invested ones. However, foreign-funded insurance companies only account for about 3 percent of China's insurance market.

Thirty-seven foreign insurance companies, including 27 of the 46 companies listed in top 500 companies by Fortune in 2003, have set up agencies in China and three more are preparing to open businesses, according to Wu Dingfu, chairman of China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC).

According to CIRC statistics, the growth rate of China's insurance is about 30 percent every year and it has become one of the fastest growing industries in China.

In 2004, the total income of insurance fees in China reached 52.2 billion US dollars and the total assets of China's insurance industry reached 143.3 billion US dollars by the end of 2004, according to CIRC.

Source: Xinhua