(Yicai Global) Sept. 6 -- China's insurance has done well in opening up, introducing plans to expand the scope of opening up and encouraging foreign insurers to more actively take part in the development of China's insurance market, Chen Wenhui, vice chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, said at a workshop with foreign institutions on Sept. 5.

The regulator will mostly focus on two key areas to make China's insurance market more attractive to overseas insurers, he added. The first is to optimize the regulatory environment for foreign companies which are already in China, and encourage them to participate in special services, such as health, pension and catastrophe insurance, and take part in new operations. It will also help them to join various national and industrial reforms to get healthy and grow quickly. The second areas is to improve access policies for foreign insurers which aren't yet in China, perfect the market's structure, enhance activity and promote fair competition by introducing more high-level overseas insurance firms.

Chen complimented foreign companies on their contribution to the development of China's insurance industry. Overseas institutions bring advanced ideas, technologies and products and drive reform and development, he said.

In terms of compliance and risk control, foreign institutions insist on conformity and compliance with laws, actively prevent and control risks, push normalized development of the market and play a demonstrative role. On a whole, overseas firms have become an important part of China's insurance development and become more influential, but they suffer problems of slow development and a smaller market, Chen added.

So far, overseas companies from 16 countries have set up 57 foreign insurers and over 1,800 branches in China. All insurers among the Fortune 500 are active in China.

Foreign insurance companies have gradually expanded their market share in the country from less than 1 percent in 2001 to 5.19 percent by the end of last year. As of the end of July, their total assets totaled CNY1 trillion (USD152 billion), much greater than the CNY3 billion (USD460 million) when China first joined the World Trade Organization.