A wider range of micro-insurance products is to be introduced to give farmers and low-income urbanites better access to essential cover, officials have said.

The products will be tailored to people on low incomes, with lower annual premiums, the insurance regulator has said.

Despite some progress in the fledgling sector, "the country's current micro-insurance products have not fully matched the demand from farmers," Wu Dingfu, chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC), had said earlier.

The commission is currently considering policies to support micro-insurance to achieve sustainable and healthy development, the CIRC's vice-chairman Li Kemu said yesterday, echoing a statement posted on its website a few days ago which vowed to "do its best" to promote micro-insurance.

Li was speaking at an international seminar on micro-insurance in Beijing, which attracted more than 250 senior insurance managers and regulatory officials from 20 countries and regions.

The commission said it will establish an evaluation mechanism for micro-insurance products and explore more distribution channels to promote them, while at the same time encouraging insurers to introduce more products.

However, it did not elaborate on what measures will be taken to motivate insurers.

There is already a range of micro-insurance products on the market, as insurance companies come up with new products to grasp opportunities in the vast rural areas.

For instance, a micro-life insurance product developed by China Life offers an eight-times refund on an annual premium of 100 yuan ($13.80) for farmers to guard against fatal accidents.

Such products are more affordable for farmers and low-income urbanites, when compared with regular products that ask for an annual premium of several thousand yuan or more.

According to officials, farmers' per capita net income is expected to have risen 7 percent last year, to 4,000 yuan, still below the 10,000 yuan average for town and city dwellers.

(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2008)