Joint venture insurers increase market share to 7.1%

There are 24 foreign insurers compared with 24 local • Munich Re opens takaful branch in Malaysia • Allianz buys Kazakh firm

China has seen an impressive rise in the market share of foreign insurers since the market was opened up gradually from 2003. It rose to 7.1% in the first eight months of this year as compared to a 2.6% share seen at the end of 2004. Given the vast size of the Chinese market and even bigger potential, the increase in the share of foreign insurers can be regarded as almost dramatic.