Prudential's mainland staff growing on the double
British insurer plans huge increase in sales agents on mainland as people unsure of welfare reform line up to buy private health insurance
British insurer Prudential plans to double its sales force on the mainland over the next few years because it believes more Chinese are keen to buy their own health insurance amid growing uncertainties about pension reform.
Barry Stowe, Prudential's chief executive officer for Asia, told the South China Morning Post there was scope to double the number of agents in the world's No 2 economy to 30,000 over the next few years.
Stowe joined Prudential, Britain's largest insurer by market capitalisation, in 2006 from American International Group (AIG), a major competitor of the British insurer in Asia, in particular in China.
"The health insurance opportunity in China for the mid-term has enormous room to grow," he said.
"You know Chinese people have a very high savings rate … but what many people don't understand is that Chinese don't have a safety net; so they need to build a safety net, for example, by buying health insurance on their own."
Unlike some welfare states in Europe such as Sweden and Denmark, the public health-care and pension system in China remains underdeveloped.