China'S Pension Market Represents The Largest Opportunity In Asia

Due to the decrease of fertility rate and the prolongation of life span, the problem of support for the elderly will be more severe in most markets in the Asia Pacific region between 2006 and 2050.

In an exclusive interview with the first financial daily, Joachim Faber, executive director of Allianz Global Investors, executive director of Allianz Group, said that China represents the biggest opportunity for those who want to develop pension businesses in Asia.

First financial daily: at present, there are some changes in the pension market around the world. Which regional market changes attract the attention of Allianz?

Joachim Faber: we are more concerned about two factors, first of all, how big and urgent the problems are in the pension system of each country, followed by the size of the population in that country or region.

This allows us to roughly judge the number of business opportunities involved.

We believe that China, Korea and Japan have strong urgency in pensions.

In terms of population size, China has the largest population in the world. Although the income of workers in Japan is very high, the number of personal payments is relatively large, but the growth rate is very low. In China, the average wage of workers is rising very fast.

So China represents the biggest opportunity for those who want to do pension business in Asia.

First financial daily: in the European life insurance market, some countries have reduced the tax relief for traditional life insurance policies, while the newly launched personal and occupational pension products enjoy attractive tax incentives. How do you view this change?

Joachim Faber: in fact, this problem has touched the core of our group's business strategy.

Our idea now is to introduce new life insurance and pension products and combine the advantages of traditional life insurance departments and asset management departments to create relatively high return on investment and increase the scale of discretionary funds so that customers can have more money to live after they retire.

First financial daily: has Desheng Allianz suffered losses in the US subprime mortgage crisis?

Joachim Faber: our loss is small to almost no, but this subprime mortgage crisis has a positive impact on us.

A professional subsidiary of our company releases an investment forecast on the website every month. If you look at that investment vision forecast 9 months ago, you will find that at that time, we are suggesting that the risks are accumulating, that is to say, we discovered the danger early.

I agree with some of the investment banks in the United States that the crisis has not been completely past and the impact will still be very large.

Our prediction is that the storm will not be delayed until next year's second quarter, or at least until the first quarter of next year.

Chinese insurance companies are also beginning to take all actions in QDII products, but it is worth noting that as an insurance company, their responsibility is to ensure the safety of customers' funds through investment portfolios. Therefore, we should be cautious in overseas investment.