December 11 2006 witnessed the fifth anniversary of China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). At the same time, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) took stock of the development and accomplishments of the Chinese insurance market over the past five years.
It found that annual premiums written by foreign-invested insurance companies, meaning insurance companies with 25% or more foreign ownership, grew nine times from Rmb3.3 billion ($41 million) at the end of 2001 to Rmb34.1 billion at the end of 2005. The market share of foreign-invested insurance companies increased from 1.58% to 6.92% in the same period.
The CIRC concluded that the insurance industry is almost fully open to foreign investments, the only exceptions being that foreign-invested non-life insurance companies cannot write automobile third-party liability insurance and foreign investors cannot own more than 50% of a life insurance company.
By the end of 2006,...