ACCESS TO SKILLED PERSONNEL REMAINS CHINA’S CHALLENGE

THE biggest problem facing the China insurance sector remains the availability of skilled personnel. Deirdre Walsh, managing director of ChinaGreen told the European Insurance Forum in Dublin that he shortage of appropriately experience staff was especially acute at the middle and senior management level. And while Walsh, who was responsible for establishing an insurance joint venture in China, acknowledged there were opportunities for risk carriers, she said there were a number of other obstacles. In particular the domestic players remain dominant, Walsh said. She pointed out that there are 64 life companies, 44 general insurance companies and six reinsurers in China. Of this total, 62 are domestic carriers. “Domestic insurers are massive and foreign smaller players need to bring something different to the table. Competing on scale is next to impossible,” she suggested. One of the things that the foreign players are bringing to the market is an increasing role for brokers, according to Walsh. While agents remain the dominant distribution model she noted brokers were a growing part of the market, largely the result of foreign participants.