China's insurance sector reported a 14.5 percent year-on-year increase in premium income in 2000, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) said Thursday.
About 37.5 percent of the income, or 59.8 billion yuan, came from property insurance. The rest 99.8 billion yuan, or 62.5 percent, were from life insurance.
In 2000, insurers paid out a total of 30.6 billion yuan in claims.
By the end of the year, assets owned by insurance firms totaled 337.4 billion yuan, an increase of 65 billion yuan from the beginning of the year.
Investment into securities investment funds by insurers stood at 13.4 billion yuan at year end, with an average return of 12 percent.
The commission chairman attributed the remarkable growth to improved supervision over insurers and the market order.
By the year end, the CIRC established 31 local offices in all 30 regions and in Shenzhen, forming a nationwide supervision network.
Chinese insurers have also taken bold market-oriented reforms, including introducing international quality management systems and setting up customer service centers.
State-owned giants, the People's Insurance Company of China (PICC) and China Life, reshuffled their organizations at the provincial and county level.
(21dnn 01/12/2001)
