China Life's Cai Xiliang: The "14th Five-Year Plan" Outline Mentions Insurance 27 Times, Signaling Major Opportunities for the Insurance Industry

(Source: Beijing Business Today)

Beijing Business Today News (Reporter Hu Yongxin) — On March 26, at the 2025 performance release conference of China Life Insurance Company Limited (hereinafter referred to as “China Life”), Chairman Cai Xiliang stated: “We believe that the next five years will still be a golden strategic opportunity period for the company, containing four major dividends. First is the economic environment dividend. China’s economy remains stable with many advantages, strong resilience, and great potential. The long-term positive trend and supporting conditions have not changed, laying a solid foundation for industry development. Second is the policy dividend. The 14th Five-Year Plan mentions insurance 27 times, explicitly emphasizing the role of commercial health insurance as a supplementary guarantee, vigorously developing commercial pension insurance, and implementing long-term care insurance, among other initiatives, bringing significant opportunities to the industry. Meanwhile, risk prevention, strengthened regulation, and promotion of high-quality development have become the main themes of industry growth. As regulatory policies such as the integration of banking and insurance operations, dynamic adjustment mechanisms for guaranteed interest rates, and new regulations for health insurance continue to deepen, the industry’s orderly development continues to improve, increasingly benefiting well-regulated and stable market players. Third is the demand dividend. China’s insurance penetration and density are only about 60% of the global average, and the total assets of the insurance industry account for less than 10% of the total financial industry assets. The development of the third pillar is still in its early stages, with scale, substitution rate, and compared to developed markets, all relatively low. There is also significant room for growth in commercial health insurance claims as a proportion of total healthcare costs. The public’s demand for high-quality health, pension, and wealth management services is becoming more urgent, providing broad space for industry development. Fourth is the technology dividend. Digital technologies represented by artificial intelligence will deeply empower all aspects of insurance operations, significantly improve industry productivity, greatly expand customer base and insurance boundaries, and fundamentally reshape organizational operation models.”