The report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that implementing the strategy of elevating free trade pilot zones is listed as an important part of advancing high-level opening up. The 2023 Hainan Provincial Government Work Report pointed out that we should "accelerate the construction of a Hainan Free Trade Port with global influence, and build it into an important intersection point of the domestic and international dual circulation." PICC P&C Hainan, bearing in mind the "major concerns of the nation," practices the philosophy of "finance for the people," and thoroughly implements the relevant decisions and deployments of the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, and the Hainan Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government. Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, in the process of the high-quality development of the Hainan FTP, with a spirit of "striving," a drive of "forging ahead," and a work style of "being pragmatic," it continuously improves the quality and efficiency of financial services, helping the construction of the Hainan FTP run at an "accelerated pace."
The progression of the times is like an interlocking musical movement, constantly sounding moving chords. In the process of steadily advancing the construction of the Hainan FTP, PICC P&C Hainan has always been an active participant. Over the past five years, PICC P&C Hainan has cumulatively provided risk protection of 5.56 trillion yuan and paid a total of 4.8 billion yuan in claims. It has played the role of an insurance stabilizer in stabilizing the economy, promoting livelihoods, fighting the pandemic, and resisting typhoons, capturing the brave and determined figure of PICC P&C Hainan advancing undaunted by wind and rain.
I. Focusing on financial reform and opening up, solidly writing the "five articles" of technology insurance, green insurance, inclusive insurance, pension insurance, and digital insurance
After the publication of General Secretary Xi's "April 13" speech and Central Document No. 12, PICC P&C Hainan has conducted multiple special studies on how to implement the decisions and deployments of the CPC Central Committee, extensively understood the planning and deployment of the Hainan FTP, and on the basis of early in-depth docking and research, with the strong support of the Hainan Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government, maintained close communication, made full cooperation, refined measures, and worked earnestly and pragmatically, promoting the construction of the Hainan FTP to achieve phased progress:
(I) Taking financial innovation as the driving force to help Hainan's financial industry open up at a higher level. Innovation is the endless driving force for PICC P&C Hainan's advancement. Relying on the insurance innovation laboratory, focusing on the objective realities of the Hainan P&C insurance industry such as the scarcity of talent, insufficient product innovation, and weak service capabilities, PICC P&C Hainan takes serving the Hainan FTP's economic construction and disaster prevention and mitigation as the fundamental starting point and foothold of all work, deepens financial innovation, and strengthens the "quality" and "quantity" of insurance product supply. Among them, the innovatively developed natural rubber price (income) insurance was selected as one of the first batch of institutional innovation cases of the Hainan FTP; the company joined hands with China National Seed Group to implement the country's first exclusive insurance providing comprehensive coverage for losses caused by the infringement of plant variety rights, setting a precedent for plant intellectual property insurance protection in Hainan. At the same time, the company has strengthened innovation in inclusive insurance for citizens, inclusive insurance for agriculture, and crop price insurance, providing firm insurance protection and support for Hainan's distinctive local agricultural cash crops.
(II) Solidly writing the article on technology insurance to serve Hainan's highland of scientific and technological innovation. PICC P&C Hainan is guided by the needs of strategic emerging industries, advanced manufacturing, and sci-tech innovation enterprises. By establishing a corresponding coordination mechanism between the enterprise technological innovation process and market risk prevention, it embeds insurance products and services into links such as products and the transformation of market results, providing insurance protection for innovation and entrepreneurship entities in technological innovation and R&D innovation, greatly stimulating enterprises' vitality in scientific and technological innovation. In 2023, the company cumulatively underwrote 30,000 new energy passenger vehicles, provided risk protection of 66.9 billion yuan, cumulatively provided insurance protection of 2.7 billion yuan for 85 specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative (SRDI) enterprises in the province, and provided risk protection of 5.05 million yuan for Hainan's technology enterprises through patent enforcement insurance, patent infringement loss insurance, and intellectual property insurance.
(III) Solidly writing the article on green insurance to help Hainan build a national ecological civilization test zone. PICC P&C Hainan promotes the transformation of ecological resources into ecological assets through the innovative development of green insurance. Adapting to local conditions and taking multiple measures, it has initially established a green insurance product system and a service model and path for green insurance to serve the carbon peak and carbon neutrality, actively serving Hainan's ecological civilization construction. Since the launch of comprehensive forest insurance, over the past decade, the company has cumulatively provided natural disaster risk protection of 72 billion yuan for 110 million mu of forests in the province, with cumulative claim payments of 63.3 million yuan. In recent years, the company has strengthened the intensity of green insurance product innovation, successively implementing soil fertility index insurance and mangrove carbon sink index insurance, providing PICC solutions and paths for Hainan's air pollution prevention and control as well as soil risk management, control, and remediation.
(IV) Solidly writing the article on inclusive insurance, innovating diversified insurance consumption scenarios to meet the people's yearning for a better life. PICC P&C Hainan solidly does a good job in livelihood insurance services. Combining the insurance needs of different groups such as the migratory bird population, urban citizens, new villages, and primary and secondary school students, it actively develops inclusive pension and agricultural insurance products with low premiums and high coverage, making inclusive insurance for citizens more accessible and sustainable; actively deepens the effectiveness of police-insurance cooperation to help improve the level of rural traffic safety governance; undertakes critical illness insurance and long-term care insurance businesses. Since launching critical illness insurance three years ago, the branch has cumulatively paid critical illness insurance claims of 516 million yuan, benefiting the insured masses in 8 cities and counties in Hainan.
(V) Solidly writing the article on pension insurance to serve the elderly care cause. PICC P&C Hainan helps increase the supply of elderly care protection, promotes the construction of a multi-level pension insurance system, and meets the diversified elderly care needs of the people. Since launching care insurance, the company has underwritten 41 inpatient care insurance projects for low-income and extremely impoverished elderly people, cumulatively covering 11 cities and counties, cumulatively covering a protected population of 40,000 person-times, cumulatively paying care expenses of 23.15 million yuan, and cumulatively benefiting 8,300 person-times. At the same time, the company actively communicates with the civil affairs bureaus of various cities and counties in Hainan, submits the "Insurance Service Plan for People Over 70 Years Old," and provides accident insurance protection services for the elderly over 70 years old.
(6) Strengthening digital insurance to support the global expansion of the "Digital Economy." PICC P&C Hainan is actively building an insurance system that supports the digital economy, vigorously developing cybersecurity insurance to help safeguard the digital economy, and significantly enhancing the online, mobile, and automated levels of insurance products. This enables simple auto and agricultural insurance claims to be processed for damage assessment and claim settlement online. In particular, regarding the promotion of rubber insurance, the company has optimized and upgraded the "Jiaonongtong" system, transforming the traditional manual registration method for selling rubber. Based on technologies such as blockchain, the Internet of Things, and big data, it has achieved electronic operations for rubber purchasing businesses, including weighing, accounting, and rubber payment. This provides customers with more convenient and precise financial services such as transaction settlement and price insurance, covering rubber farmers in 16 cities and counties in Hainan.
II. Focusing on Serving National Strategies, Practicing the Political and People-Oriented Nature of the People's Insurance, and Firmly Seizing the Major Development Opportunities of the Hainan Free Trade Port
(1) Only by comprehensively aligning with major national strategies and closely integrating the "Eight Strategic Services" with national strategies can we firmly grasp the initiative in development. As the insurance entity with the largest market share in Hainan's property and casualty insurance market, PICC P&C Hainan is the "national team" serving the major national strategy of the Hainan Free Trade Port. It must take carrying the national mission as the value destination of innovative development, proactively align with and serve major national strategies, and fully engage in the historical process of deepening reform and opening up in Hainan. In particular, standing at a new historical starting point, the company is deeply aware that to build a property and casualty insurance company with first-class competitiveness, it must resolutely seize the strategic opportunities of Hainan's reform and opening up. It must take the focus of Hainan's industrial layout as a new opportunity, new driving force, and new business format for the company's innovative development. Based on policy-oriented business, it will promote the "dual-wheel drive" development of commercial business, supported by technological empowerment to enhance the company's service quality. This will form an insurance industry ecosystem characterized by strategic leadership, main business focus, integrated development, innovation-driven growth, and win-win cooperation.
(2) Only by unswervingly promoting the integration and platformization of the insurance industry chain can we stimulate development vitality. Addressing the prominent contradictions and deep-seated problems that trouble and restrict the company's development, such as weak coordination and innovation capabilities, and adhering to the philosophy that "one action is worth a dozen programs," on one hand, we focus on serving Hainan's tropical high-efficiency agriculture. We are creating a whole-industry chain integration and value chain synergy that combines land productivity index insurance (land segment), crop planting insurance (planting segment), crop cargo insurance and storage insurance (cargo and storage segments), crop price insurance (sales segment), food safety liability insurance, as well as traceability insurance and geographical indications (insurance credit enhancement and brand promotion). We leverage the professional operational advantages of the company's government and corporate business groups to seek cooperative opportunities through multi-point breakthroughs and deepen the Hainan property insurance market. On the other hand, the company will deeply participate in platform collaborations such as Hainan Fresh Products and Yecheng Citizen Cloud, promoting the platformization of regional collaboration. By linking Hainan's various businesses and resources through the platform economy, we not only strengthen direct communication with the Hainan Provincial Government but also promote internal business synergy within the company, mobilizing various resources to facilitate the high-quality development of the company's business.
(3) Only by forming a government-enterprise cooperative relationship of "advancing hand in hand, taking solid actions, and being pragmatic and efficient" can the advantages of central enterprises and the government be organically combined and deeply integrated. Since 2018, when General Secretary Xi Jinping announced the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Zone and the steady advancement of the Hainan Free Trade Port, through more than five years of deep and pragmatic cooperation with governments at all levels in Hainan, the entire company has fully felt the Hainan Provincial Government's reform determination and strong atmosphere of taking solid actions, being pragmatic and efficient, daring to explore, and daring to be the first. On November 14, when Hainan Vice Governor Chen Huaiyu investigated PICC P&C Hainan, he fully affirmed the company's work in serving various aspects of Hainan. He required PICC P&C Hainan to firmly seize the development opportunities of the Hainan Free Trade Port, comprehensively upgrade the quality of insurance supply, and contribute PICC's strength to Hainan's financial GDP growth while promoting its own high-quality development. Therefore, PICC P&C Hainan will take "implementation" as the key link in comprehensively advancing all work, refine goals, implement responsibilities, make every effort to cooperate, and advance hand in hand, transforming the advantages of government-enterprise cooperation into a new driving force for the company's development.
III. Focusing on Increasing Hainan's Share of Financial GDP, Deeply Integrating into Hainan's "Three Zones and One Center" Grand Framework, and Creating a "New Highland" for Insurance Innovation and Service Development
(1) Establishing the Hainan Insurance (PICC) Innovation Service Center, strengthening the innovation and incubation of insurance products, and focusing on serving the development of Hainan's shipping and logistics. Strengthening the layout of internal and external shipping routes in Hainan and building a "new fulcrum" for land-sea trade channels are the fundamental conditions for the high-quality development of the Hainan Free Trade Port. Facing the insurance opportunities emerging from the aggregation of shipping and logistics resources in Hainan, route layout, and port infrastructure construction, PICC P&C Hainan will use the port and shipping holding platform as a starting point to promote port infrastructure engineering insurance and construction group personal accident insurance, enhancing the protection capacity of port infrastructure. It will promote container cargo storage insurance and transportation insurance to facilitate bulk commodity trade, and promote ship oil pollution liability insurance and ship property insurance to serve the newly registered ship business in Hainan of shipping companies led by COSCO Shipping.
(2) Making every effort to develop green insurance to serve the construction of Hainan's National Ecological Civilization Test Zone. In terms of serving environmental pollution control, focusing on the remediation of air, water, and soil environmental pollution, vigorously developing environmental pollution liability insurance, implementing ecology-index-related insurance, and exploring implementation paths for insurance services in building a green Hainan. In terms of serving the construction of Hainan's Clean Energy Island, further improving the business plan for new energy vehicles, strengthening the underwriting of new energy vehicles, and assisting the construction of our province as a strong province of clean energy. In terms of serving green and low-carbon development, innovating the supply of green insurance products such as green agriculture, green industry, and green credit, supporting green and low-carbon development, and protecting our lucid waters and lush mountains.
(III) Focusing on the construction of Hainan's "Maritime Silk Road" and fully serving the national Belt and Road Initiative. In terms of serving "going global" enterprises, we are committed to providing professional and international insurance protection as well as one-stop, full-process insurance services for these enterprises. By utilizing export credit insurance, domestic trade credit insurance, engineering insurance, property insurance, and others, we tailor personalized insurance protection schemes for enterprises, providing important decision-making references for their cross-border cooperation. In terms of serving the marine industry, we continuously enhance our insurance service capabilities for offshore wind power, marine ranching, marine engineering equipment, offshore oil and gas exploration, and more. In terms of serving the "digital economy" going global, through the innovative development of digital asset insurance, we promote the value release of intangible digital assets, establish an innovative integration mechanism between insurance and digital assets, and safeguard the efficient, safe, and orderly development of digital transactions.
(IV) Focusing on rural revitalization and fully safeguarding the development of agriculture, rural areas, and farmers. In consolidating the effectiveness of rural revitalization, we help effectively connect the achievements of poverty alleviation with rural revitalization, optimize the assistance mechanisms for industry, insurance, and consumption, and build a "floodgate" to prevent falling back into poverty. In assisting the three main grain crops, we further increase the coverage and protection level of agricultural insurance for the three major food crops, promote the principle of "insuring all that should be insured" for rice planting and seed rice insurance, build a high-quality agricultural insurance service system, and safeguard "food security." In developing whole-industry-chain insurance, we explore insurance for the entire agricultural industry chain, expand the coverage of specialty agricultural insurance, and promote the upgrading of agricultural insurance from yield protection to price protection, from cost protection to income protection, and from breeding and planting protection to integrated production and sales protection.
(V) Focusing on serving the real economy and fully safeguarding technological innovation. Deeply integrating into the new dual-circulation development paradigm and grasping supply-side financial reform, we focus on Hainan's "3+1" industrial system, digital economy, marine economy, aerospace, urban renewal, high technology, and other fields to provide a package of risk solutions for the real economy. We vigorously develop technology insurance and intellectual property insurance, enhance the credit of small, medium, and micro tech enterprises, and further reduce financing costs. Meanwhile, focusing on key areas such as leading enterprises, industrial clusters, and dominant industries, we provide one-stop, full-chain insurance services.
(VI) Focusing on safeguarding people's well-being and fully responding to the people's expectations. Based on the Healthy Hainan strategy, we further accelerate the expansion of coverage in areas such as "inclusive city-wide insurance," long-term care insurance, and special chronic disease outpatient care, explore the new model of "health insurance + health management," and help improve the medical and elderly care security systems. Aligning with the people's growing insurance demands, we strategically expand the individual customer market, increase insurance supply in areas such as medical care, accidents, critical illness, travel, and home care, and fulfill the principle of "People's Insurance, Serving the People." We continue to deepen the extension of distinctive services such as "police-insurance cooperation" and "two stations and two personnel" to the rural grassroots level, enhancing the warmth of our insurance services for the people.
PICC Property and Casualty Hainan will implement the strategic deployments of the Group and the Head Office, play the role of the main force of the national team as a central enterprise, continuously broaden cooperation areas and deepen cooperation connotations with the Hainan Provincial Government, further promote the high-quality development of the property insurance sector in Hainan Province, and contribute to the high-quality development of the Hainan Free Trade Port.
(Author: Zhu Jian, PICC Property and Casualty Hainan Branch)
