China raked in 431.81 billion yuan (about 53.24 billion U.S. dollars) in premium revenue last year, posting an increase of 11.3 percent from a year ago, but still five times the world average growth rate, said an insurance official.

Dai Fengju, president of China Insurance Society, made the above remarks a summit forum on insurance marketing and management in China which was held over the weekend in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province.

China's insurance sector chalked up 412.3 billion yuan in premium revenue in the first 10 months of the year, approaching the level for the whole year of 2004, the official said.

The insurance sector expanded at an averaged annual growth rate of 30 percent in the Chinese mainland since the country resumed insurance as a commercial business in 1980, said Dai.

The first insurance organization on the Chinese mainland was built in Guangzhou in 1805.

Source: Xinhua