Xiamen C&D Inc and Taiwan Life Insurance Co will set up a 240-million-yuan (US$33.36 million) joint life insurer to tap the Chinese mainland's rising demand for financial protection, Xiamen C&D said yesterday.

Fujian Province-based Xiamen C&D will hold a half stake of the joint venture while its Taiwanese partner will take the remaining half, Xiamen C&D said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange yesterday.

The mainland insurance market has grown at an average 18.2 percent in the past five years.

Insurance assets topped 2.9 trillion yuan at the end of 2007 with premiums of 703.6 billion yuan.

At the end of last year, 43 insurers from 15 countries or regions established a foothold in the mainland insurance industry.

Overseas life insurers can hold up to a 50-percent stake of a life insurance joint-venture in the Chinese mainland while the cap at overseas property and casualty insurers was set at 51 percent.

Taiwan Life was set up in 1947.

The Chinese mainland was the life insurer's "first choice" for overseas expansion, the company said on its Website.

(Shanghai Daily February 14, 2008)