The deal makes it the first foreign insurer to have two joint ventures in the burgeoning China market.

It will also be the first joint venture life insurance business in Dalian, where the insurance market has been protected for domestic players for five years.

The new ING Life Insurance Company is set to start operations in November and already has ambitious expansion plans.

It is seeking to set up branches in other parts of the country -- including Guangzhou and Beijing -- as part of its national strategy in China, where the insurance industry has grown dramatically in recent years.

The company has already launched a life insurance joint venture, ING Pacific Life Insurance Co, with the Shanghai-based China Pacific Insurance Co in the late 1990s.

With an initial capital base of 200 million yuan (US$24.15 million), ING Insurance and Capital Group will own 50 per cent of the joint venture equity respectively, but ING will play a management role. And the new company will provide whole life and endowment policies, as well as life insurance savings plans to local customers.

"We have already got the green light to open our business in Guangzhou, and we hope to expand our business in Beijing in line with the opening of China's insurance market in the wake of the nation's WTO accession," said Ewald Kist, visiting chairman of the Fortune 500 company.

According to China's WTO commitment, the country will allow foreign companies to develop insurance businesses in a number of coastal cities, including Shanghai, Guangzhou, Dalian, Shenzhen and Foshan.

(China Daily July 19, 2002)