A JAPANESE insurance company became the first foreign insurer to set up a headquarters in Shenzhen on Wednesday.
The establishment of headquarters for the NIPPONKOA Insurance Co. (China) Ltd., Japan’s third oldest non-life insurance provider, was also a first for South China.
The company was eligible for incentives totaling 8 million yuan (US$1.47 million) from the city government.
Vice Mayor Lu Ruifeng said the government would also guarantee preferential land policies to support the company’s development.
The headquarters would be the parent company’s business center in Southeast Asia, integrating resources in Hong Kong and South Asia.
The company said it chose Shenzhen because of the burgeoning logistics and financial industries and the large number of Japanese enterprises.
Shenzhen was designated as a pilot city for the innovation of insurance and financial industries in June 2006, in an agreement reached by the Shenzhen government and China Insurance Regulatory Commission.
Japan’s third oldest non-life insurance provider, NIPPONKOA Insurance commands more than 9 percent of Japan’s non-life insurance market, which ranks as one of the largest in the world, together with those of the United States, Germany and England.
Shenzhen is home to one of the company’s six representative offices in China.
(Li Hao)