India and China would emerge as the fastest growing life insurance markets in the world, mopping up $50 billion in premium by 2005, but Beijing is expected to overtake New Delhi and grab the major share, an industry expert said on Tuesday.
While competing with each other, China and India would be the fastest growing life insurance markets in the world mopping up $50 billion dollars in premium by 2005 compared to $30 billion dollars now, says a top official of Aviva Plc, which has operations in both the countries.
However, China is expected to outsmart India in terms of growth in life insurance by posting a premium income of $35 billion by 2005 mainly through its firm policy measures and easy investment norms, while India is expected to mop up $15 billion.
"China is going to grow much faster than India. The premium income from life insurance business in China is set to go up to about $35 billion by 2005 from $14 billion now. In case of India, it is expected to inch up to over $15 billion from $12 billion last fiscal," Aviva Asia's managing director Charles Anderson said at an insurance summit in Colombo.
Anderson attributed the better prospects of life insurance to the higher savings rate at about 40 per cent in China compared to 23-24 per cent in India. The Chinese economy too is growing at about 10 per cent compared to 4.4 per cent in India.
The importance of life insurance and pension in these countries also assumes importance in the wake of rise in the life expectancy rates.
