Outlook of Insurance Service for The Belt and Road Construction
周延礼
It has been for 3 years since President Xi Jinping putting forward “the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road” in the autumn of 2013, and the known as “Belt and Road” Initiative, which has been widely recognized and endorsed by the international community as soon as it was made public. From the domestic and international perspective, the CPCCentral Committee and State Council have already made a major strategic plan for the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative. And the new requirements have been put forward for a new pattern of opening up policy. In the process of pushing ahead with the construction of “the Belt and Road”, the departments concerned of Chinese government have done a lot of communications for the wide and positive response of the countries along the silk route. The Vision and Action Plan responded to the expectation of countries along the silk route. And it meets the requirements of the new trend and the new technology nowadays. Therefore, its significance will surely lie beyond promoting the regional peace and economic development. Meanwhile, it is in this way that “the Belt and Road” Initiative provides a new engine for the going global strategy and also brings a new historic opportunity for Chinese enterprises to carry out overseas business. I believe that the win-win result will be achieved in the years to come.
Certainly, we will need a stable tool to minimize the risk we face and would find out a better risk solution for the problems. The insurance mechanism is therefore considered to be the only choice. Academically, the long-term research of the insurance function approves that insurance is not only a tool to guard against risk, but also an approach to resolve risk, specially under the market economy. Now we stress that the market plays a decisive role in the allocation of resources and the government should play a better role in the meantime. But in the international trade and investment, we will firstly deal with the country credit risks for instance. How we should do to solve these risks. I think an insurance policy can tell you all about it. So the significance of insurance role would be particularly manifested. Practically, the insurance technology will be put into use. it all starts with risk identification, risk estimation and risk assessment. However, we still need to judge the risk and then analyze the risk that exists. Eventually, we come to resolve the risk in the methodology of risk classifications. This is what we would deeply consider. The unit of risk and the scale of risk are required to refine so as to figure out the risk cost and put forward measures to solve it according to its nature.
In general, it requires to control the risk by considering the risk characteristics, setting up the budget of risk expenditure, formulating a plan for the risk management and identifying the risk target. Once an insurance policy is taken out, the insured will sleep well and needn’t worry about any losses in future because the rest of it is taken care of by the insurer. Furthermore, insurers would spread the risk through the co-insurance and/or reinsurance arrangement worldwide. Thus, it is believed that the role of insurance should not be underestimated from this perspective.
With regards to the role of insurance, I recently re-read Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations” which mainly describes economy’s great contributions to economic growth and wealth distribution. On this basis, I think we would consider how insurance makes contributions to improve the efficiency of economy and to promote economic growth, and further to safeguard the wealth of the residents and increase the wealth of them. Meanwhile, there are some important social responsibilities for insurance regulator and insurance companies at large, such as maintaining financial security, preventing financial risks, improving financial efficiency, strengthening supervision, achieving the organic equilibrium of the quality and efficiency in the insurance service, and the growth and speed of their business
In the terms of macro economy, we still need to carry out further study on the function and role of the insurance mechanism. It can contribute to the security of economy, stability of market, international trade and investment and so on. In the micro economy, it can cover risks of the rail road trains, road auto cars, airplanes, marine cargo and hull etc, any of projects for “the Belt and Road” Initiative and the collaborative development and integration of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, the overall development of the Yangtze River Basin. So it could be concluded that insurance is really important. The insurance service is to be taken into the framework of “the Belt and Road” construction. As an important modern service industry, the insurance mechanism can serve the market supervision, credit management, risk management and project financing. As much as possible, insurers would provide consulting service for enterprises in the construction of “the Belt and Road”, especially in project financing abroad.
In respect of the built-up of the insurance power for Chinese insurance industry, it is also one of the inherent needs of making the international layout to realize a shift from a major insurance power to a world insurance leading power. So far as insurance regulation is concerned, the Belt and Road construction paves a way for regulatory information exchanges and regulatory cooperation with insurance regulators of the countries along the silk route. This is a better opportunity for us to do so. Chinese insurance industry will actively respond to requirements of the national strategy, politics and economy as well as regional security of the countries along the route, and carry out the professionalism in risk management to provide full risk protection for each link of the production, sales, transportation, finance and insurance of these countries, even to support the financial facilitation. Only in this way can the insurance industry be able to accomplish great deeds.
Whereas, the insurance company as a whole exerts itself to assisting Chinese enterprises in the going global strategy by providing comprehensive insurance coverage. Here, I would like to talk about my views from four aspects.
1. It is about the role of the insurance industry in “the Belt and Road” construction. As an important service industry in the modern economy, insurance industry actively serves “the Belt and Road” construction through the economic compensation, risk management and money financing. insurer can provide comprehensive risk coverage and risk consulting service for the enterprises in each field of “the Belt and Road”. According to the different subject matter of insurance, insurance products can be classified into the property insurance and personal life insurance. Meanwhile, the various risks can be transferred through reinsurance. Some special insurer can offer only reinsurance services in property insurance, liability insurance, credit insurance, agricultural insurance, etc.
For example, although China is a large agricultural country, the agricultural cooperation advances irresistibly in the going global strategy, and a good effect has been achieved in Africa and South America. So, the crop and live stock insurance coverage needs to follow up in those areas. There, compensatory insurances are to be offered for tangible or intangible properties as well as the related subject matters of insurance.
To be specific, the Personal Life Insurance takes the life and body of persons as the subject matter of insurance. According to the insurance contract, when people encounter accidents, lose the ability to work and face disability, death or retirement because of disease and old age, the insurer should offer insurance benefits to the insured or the beneficiary person. Again there are health insurance, medical insurance, nursing insurance and so on. As for Non-Life Insurance in the energy, resources, equipment, engineering and other cooperation areas, where the investment risk of the Belt and Road construction and connectivity relatively are concentrated, the engineering insurance, liability insurance, cargo insurance, marine insurance, shipping insurance, energy insurance and credit, overseas investment insurance, domestic credit insurance, insurance for heavy equipment, some special insurance, and overseas engineering and other special insurance can play a protective role, and can formulate a comprehensive insurance scheme by means of reinsurance and coinsurance. From this point, it can be seen that any risk in the construction of “the Belt and Road” can be covered in the insurance scheme. Besides, some special insurance coverage is also required for the cooperative education, tourism, science and technology and other activities overseas, such risks as juvenile liability insurance for primary and secondary school students and college students, personal accident insurance for overseas travel, etc. Accident insurance, travel insurance, critical illness insurance, pension insurance, personal insurance, medical care, and other types of insurances coverage can be offered for cross-border personnel movement. Thus, insurance is very important.
2. With respect of the insurance regulatory system, we have to recognize the differences in every country. In the process of providing insurance coverage for countries along the silk route, some issues have to be taken into account in the level of economic development, the legal system, the history of insurance, the level of management and the scale of insurance. Therefore, the information exchanges will be conducted to assist in a comprehensive analysis and find out a best practice in the insurance service for Chinese enterprises. I would rest assured that easy things should go ahead, and the easy matters should be dealt with before the difficult ones. This is a right approach for variable regulatory institutions,
Firstly, the easy way is to get everything ready at home before any conflict happens in some legal matter with local regulatory exercise. So, we have to choose a comprehensive risk management plan for various i nvestment projects. We need to treat them properly to avoid any possible loss abroad. If not so, an early report should be made to Chinese insurance regulator. International regulatory cooperation will be done to minimize the losses at least premium expense, and achieve the highest insurance coverage.
Secondly, a better way is to establish a reinsurance connection with local insurers. There are two ways to do so, that are, the risk transfer and the risk management. These can be done continuously through a professional risk management mechanism, which can reduce some loss brought by the risk happenings. Therefore, insurers can directly deal with all sorts of risks at time of underwriting risk and settlement of claims abroad.
Thirdly, the insurers can make the full use of technical force and internet advantage to offer insurance services wherever in the word. From the angles of economy, politics, law and business environment, it’s necessary to provide the risk reports of different nations and regions and the risk study reports of related nations because the countries along the silk route have their respective risk models, so we need to share information and exchanges for their demand.
For the sake of the investment “To-Do Manual” for the risk management and the Industry Categories, the updated information could be offered by the insurers to enterprises to analyze the industry risks and help the enterprises to establish healthy enterprise risk database. Risk evaluation and management mechanism can be set up to improve the risk management for specific projects. Therefore, insurers are not just able to provide enterprises insurance coverage but mostly risk consulting service. Insurers are like a doctor diagnosing the enterprises, they can make timely adjustments in case of any risk and abnormal indicator, it’s like taking medicine when necessary, we will reduce the risk when necessary. Whereas, the enterprises shall not make an overdraft, which might result in irretrievable loss.
It’s known that the setting of standard is directly connected with insurance operation. An example is taken for instance. There’s an insurance laboratory in the US called Underwriting Laboratory (UL in short) specialized in setting standards. In the past 100 year, most of the industry safety standards were made by UL. The standards set up by the insurance sector are not only for the insuring public but also for the product makers and their end-users. Therefore, the risk solutions made by the insurers are most reliable in my perspective. And therefore, the risk management function shall be brought into full play through loss prevention beforehand, consulting intervention at the mean time and afterward, so as to keep the sustainable operation of the enterprises.
3. The project financing and investment are another business area in the infrastructure construction of the Belt and Road because the insurance operation has “two wheels”, namely underwriting and investment. These two wheels shall move synchronously with the same speed. The financing would mainly serve the infrastructure construction, as soon as the conditions are ready for personnel, information, logistics, communication etc. Therefore bank, securities and insurance can effectively work together for enterprises. And it’s said that USD 800 billion is required to invest in the construction of the “Belt and Road” in each year. I believe that Chinese insurers are able to invest in some of the major project because of a rapid-growing market. Chinese insurance industry from January to November of this year maintains the growth rate of more than 30%, and the total assets and the total premium income will stay up to a new high level by the year end. It is projected that it will exceed RMB3 trillion at the end of this year. The total assets of insurance now has reached RMB14 trillion, which will certainly exceed RMB15 trillion at the end of the year. In respect to the accumulation of huge insurance fund, the payment capacity of the insurers is improved. The investment in this respect will be strengthened. During the construction of the “Belt and Road”, insurers will resort to the means of stock rights, creditor’s rights and Insurance funds, which are consistent with thoughts of some enterprises. Therefore, Insurers can strengthen the cooperation with enterprises in this respect to meet the demand of financing requirement for the “Belt and Road” construction. On one hand can insurers directly invest in such projects as port, logistics, aviation and industry parks, on the another hand would they in many ways invest in the strategic emerging industries and sci-tech industries. Additionally, they can also provide comprehensive insurance-assisted support to optimize the industry upgrading.
As for the going global strategy, the insurance industry has been actively serving enterprises with the export credit insurance to help them to solve the risks of transnational investment. In past three years, they offered the insurance and financial support to the enterprises in the across border investment to widen their export business and expand their business relations in the international market. A lot of financial disputes were settled satisfied. In the years to come, the insurers would intensively study to serve the “Belt and Road” construction in an active way. The export credit insurance will continue to support some proprietary brands and proprietary intellectual property rights and some novel industries introduced by the government. If Insurers tend to focus on the high-tech insurance products with high added-value, the approval process would be simplified in the regulatory approval, similarly for the investment in energy, minerals, infrastructure, high-tech and advanced manufacturing industries. And a strong support will be maintained to the investment in the agriculture abroad. Insurance regulator will encourage insurers to develop some new insurance products and would let them to continue to expand the insurance product range.
4.Some special insurance products will be put in first priority. Such investments as heavy equipment, special-purpose equipment and overseas major project, the insurance support will be offered as soon as the project budgets are approved by the departments concerned of the government. A fast regulatory approval could be done for some other heavy equipment manufacturing project for the international cooperate with the industry capacity. Thus, in the field of international capacity and equipment manufacturing, insurers will work along with relevant enterprises to cope with the requirements of the finance and insurance, serving them in the construction of the Belt and Road. An appropriate insurance coverage would be offered to them for going out to solve the risk in business operation. For the risks of the first equipment, it is vitally important for the investors. Once it doesn’t work out, they’ll come out empty-handed, and the financial loss would be enormous. However, with the insurance cover there, the R&D and reproduction would be timely resumed. So, they need not to worry about it anymore. While, insurers would have to design new insurance products for technical equipment and risk investment because we are short of the latest knowledge. Especially some insurers might have developed the insurance coverage for spaceflight and aviation. In the insurance cover of thunder, malfunction for nuclear energy project, insurers shall have to be cooperative with enterprises for all these special-purpose insurance products because there is a requirement for the insurance coverage in some overseas engineering projects.
来源：http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/B_eflmzEpTWLlGL3lJjRlw
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