Foreign insurers expect windfall

Foreign non-life insurers were granted approval to do business with Chinese companies from December and are expecting income from China to climb rapidly in 2004. Until December, foreign non-life insurers had only been allowed to insure foreign customers and a very limited number of domestic companies.

Now these restrictions have been lifted as part of China’s WTO accession agreement, companies such as American International Underwriters (AIU) expect their China incomes to climb by as much as 50% annually.