Life Insurance Opens to Aeronautic StaffChina's aeronautic employees can enjoy life insurance protection like their foreign counterparts do, since an agreement was signed between China's largest life insurance company and the China Space Foundation Wednesday in Beijing.According to the agreement, China Life Insurance Company will provide personal, accidental and health insurance for people engaged in aeronautic designing, manufacturing, experimenting, launching and monitoring. "The co-operation is very significant in improving the general level of China's space industry and catching up with advanced international practice," said Shen Chunnian, chairman of the China Space Foundation. As a high-risk industry, any damage in the satellite or an employee could result in tremendous economic and psychological losses.Thus the company is in great need of insurance protection, said Shen. As China's space technology made great strides in recent years, it successfully launched its first spacecraft last year and will conduct more spacecraft experiments in the future. China plans to launch manned spacecraft as well, Shen added. "This high-risk course can not be done successfully without the support of the insurance industry," he said. China had only property insurance products safeguarding the space projects, while people engaged in the profession had little insurance protection. Even the property insurance was a difficult task for People's Insurance Company of China. As the country's largest life insurer, China Life Insurance Company is fully qualified to offer economic support to people engaged in the space industry with its strong financial holding and established reputation, said China Life President Wang Xianzhang. Separating from the People's Insurance Company of China in 1998, China Life has made substantial progress over the last couple of years with total assets amounting to 131.5 billion yuan (US$15.8 billion). |
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