print edition
China Daily
HK edition
business weekly
Shanghai star
reports from China
web edition news
 
   
   
 
government info economic insights campus life Shanghai today metropolitan  
   
       
  French insurance firm plants fresh roots
(XIAO ZHANG , China Daily staff)
06/23/2003

China's insurance authorities last week granted French agricultural insurance firm Groupama a licence to operate in the southwestern city of Chengdu, a step that will help revive the nation's long-dormant agricultural insurance sector.

Wu Dingfu, chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), was unambiguous about his intentions. "I believe, when Groupama makes its contribution to China's agriculture and rural insurance, it's also a contribution to the world and the human race," he told Groupama officials and reporters last Monday.

He was right. But analysts are asking one question - in a country where more than 1 billion farmers have battled natural disasters and increasing operational risks with, for years, only embarrassingly poor insurance coverage, how much difference can foreign insurers make?

"It's certainly a good thing that they are willing to do it," said Tuo Guozhu, an insurance professor with the Beijing-based Capital University of Economics and Business. "But our research tells us that (purely) commercial operations of agricultural insurance can hardly be successful."

Unlike other insurance businesses that they are scrambling to take a share of as China gradually opens up the market, Tuo said foreign insurance companies have shown little interest in the, by nature, highly risky agricultural insurance, where the only two Chinese insurers, after suffering years of losses, are making a final retreat.

Indeed, there is already suspicion among analysts that Groupama is, instead of trying to make a difference in China's agricultural insurance, only taking a detour to enter the vast Chinese market.

But Groupama officials insist they are serious. "We started from agriculture, and we've been doing it for more than 100 years," said Francois Zhang, Groupama's chief representative in Beijing. "We will not give up what we are good at to do what we are not good at."

The Groupama Group was established in 1900 and controls two-thirds of France's rural market. It focused on rural France until its takeover in 1998 of Gan, the third largest French insurer, that enabled its leapfrog into the cities and foreign countries.

"Since we started in 1900, we never had a loss (in agricultural insurance)," Zhang said.

But it is a different story in China. The State-owned People's Insurance Company of China (PICC), the major agricultural insurance provider in China, had never seen a net profit from agricultural insurance since it relaunched the business in 1982 as part of the country's market reforms.

And even the PICC is giving up. Insiders said the company, planning an initial public offering later this year, has virtually ended all agricultural insurance business, even including profitable operations in Shanghai and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

"After 20 years of experimenting, commercial agricultural insurance has basically been abandoned in China," Tuo said.

And in the vast rural areas of China, one of the countries most plagued by natural disasters, foreign insurers face largely the same problems that frustrated PICC. "The farmers are scattered and marketing is very difficult," said Tuo. "And their incomes are low."

Groupama's Zhang said the company was aware of the tough going. "We noticed all those. Yes there are difficulties," he said.

Groupama is hoping the Chinese Government will separate the more manageable regular agricultural risks like frost and hailstones for commercial insurance and provide coverage for catastrophies with State budget, as is the case in France, Zhang said.

As the development of modern agriculture increases operational risks and Chinese farmers face increasing competitive pressure from foreign produce due to the country's World Trade Organization membership, calls are getting louder for establishing a government-sponsored insurance system for farmers and agriculture.

A proposal by the central bank in 1997 to create a State-funded agricultural insurance system was rejected by the Ministry of Finance for unknown reasons. But relevant ministries are reportedly conducting a research project on agricultural insurance in China.

Groupama is also betting on a broader sense of agricultural insurance, which, in Groupama's case, may cover all property insurance products, to generate profits that can offset potential losses from planting and breeding, the traditional Chinese definition of agricultural insurance. In France, the business also includes farmers' life insurance.

"In granting us a property insurance licence, the CIRC was giving us the leeway, as it was aware that pure planting and breeding may bring losses," Zhang said.

China's commercial agricultural premiums were below 1 billion yuan (US$120 million) in 2001, as compared with the 210 billion yuan (US$25.3 billion) of total insurance premiums.

(HK Edition 06/23/2003 page7)

   
       
               
         
               
   
 

| frontpage | nation | business | HK\Taiwan | snapshots | focus |
| governmentinfo | economic insights | campus life | Shanghai today | metropolitan |

   
 
 
   
 
 
  | Copyright 2000 By China Daily Hong Kong Edition. All rights reserved. |
| Email: cndyhked@chinadaily.com.cn | Fax: 25559103 | News: 25185107 | Subscription: 25185130 |
| Advertising: 25185128 | Price: HK$5 |
主站蜘蛛池模板: 成人黄色免费网站| 99久久超碰中文字幕伊人| 男爵夫人的调教| 国产精品2018| 中文精品久久久久国产网址| 熟女性饥渴一区二区三区| 四虎永久在线精品国产馆v视影院| 91视频啊啊啊| 好吊日免费视频| 九九九九九九伊人| 男女做爽爽视频免费观看| 国产成人免费网站app下载| 7777精品久久久大香线蕉| 新版bt天堂资源在线| 亚洲第一页在线观看| 精品久久久久久亚洲| 国产成人精品免费视频大全办公室 | 久久国产精久久精产国| 玩山村女娃的小屁股| 国产精品美女网站在线看| 久久99精品久久久久婷婷| 欧美疯狂做受xxxxx高潮| 少妇高潮喷潮久久久影院| 亚洲欧美日韩中文久久| 老湿机香蕉久久久久久| 国产精品国产三级国产AV′ | 男操女视频网站| 午夜激情电影在线观看| 老熟妇高潮一区二区三区| 国产亚洲精品成人久久网站| 99久久亚洲综合精品网站| 日日噜噜噜夜夜爽爽狠狠视频| 九九综合VA免费看| 柔佳呻吟乳峰喘息高耸入云| 亚洲国产精品无码久久| 欧美日韩综合网在线观看| 午夜不卡av免费| 老鸭窝在线视频观看| 国产三级在线观看专区| 草草影院www色欧美极品| 实况360监控拍小两口|