(Yicai Global) April 18 -- China has achieved good results in exploring personal pension financial services, and it will introduce retirement saving products in due time, the former vice chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission said.

China has done some small-scale experiments with life insurance and retirement wealth management mainly in Suzhou in eastern Jiangsu province, Xiamen in southeastern Fujian province and Shanghai, Zhou Yanli said at the 2022 Tsinghua People's Bank of China School of Finance Global Finance Forum yesterday.

A special life insurance program piloted in June last year secured CNY500 million (USD78.5 million) in premiums from over 70,000 subscribers by the end of February this year, he said. More than 10,000 of these were deliverymen and ride-hailing drivers demonstrating the important role that such a scheme would play in providing social security for employees in the new economy.

Eight retirement wealth management products were put on sale from September last year to Feb. 9 this year, Zhou said. Over 70,000 people invested CNY20.7 billion (USD3.3 billion), indicating the need for individual pension wealth management.

The country’s aging population creates development opportunities for the economy, he said. China must give a full play to annuity insurance’s function and role. The country could hike support through fiscal and taxation policies, learn from foreign countries, and give more choices in the form of deposits, insurance and funds.

Editor: Kim Taylor