This Day, That Year

40 years on

On Nov 27, 1979, the national insurance conference was held in Beijing, and it decided to reopen China’s insurance market amid financial reforms.

The next year, the country’s insurance premiums totaled 640 million yuan ($92 million).

From 1992 to 2000, the government granted licenses

Editor’s note: This year marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up policy.

to 16 companies including Taiping Insurance and China Insurance.

An item from Jan 10, 2007, in China Daily showed China Life returning to the A-share market in Shanghai, making it the country’s only financial insurer to be at that time triple-listed home and abroad.

The life insurer listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange in 2003, raising $3.5 billion in that year’s largest initial public offering.

In recent decades, the government had gradually further opened its insurance market to foreign investors.

In 1992, the People’s Bank of China granted American Insurance Group a permit to begin selling life and property insurance in Shanghai.

As of last year, companies from 16 countries or regions had opened 57 insurance entities in China with 1,800 branches and outlets, covering life and property insurance, reinsurance and asset management insurance. All of the insurers on the Fortune 500 list operate in China.

The combined market share of foreign insurers grew from less than 1 percent in 2001 to 5.19 percent at the end of 2016.

China’s insurance market has great potential to offer a wider range of products and cover more risks facing residents and enterprises, according to China International Capital Corp.

It added that as wealth grows and lifestyles diversify, demand for protection rises.