Foshan government to support insurance industry

Government in Foshan's Chancheng District has introduced policies to boost the local insurance intermediary industry.

The city at the center of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in southern China will give subsidies to insurance intermediary institutions when they are first established, as well as for their operations and management.

Government will support financial professionals by offering educational programs to their children and subsidies in tax and home-buying, according to local officials.

Government also established an "enterprise service platform" in 2018 for companies to manage procedures in one place, which connected government and companies.

Till now 75 insurance companies have presences in Foshan, and premium income in the city is expected to exceed 70 billion yuan ($10 billion) in 2019, up almost 50 percent on the same period last year.

Local government hopes that by 2021 the total number of insurance intermediary institutions in this district will exceed 200 and their total tax contribution will exceed 2 billion yuan ($291 million).

The development of the insurance intermediary industry in the area is covered in the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

According to Chen Hui, a researcher with the China Institute for Actuarial Science, a college under the Central University of Finance and Economics, insurance intermediaries are beginning to gather in places with favorable policies.

Yang Pengyu contributed to this story