The government is also encouraging insurance firms to attract part of the 1.9 trillion dollars household savings in policies.

China's life insurance premiums nearly quadruped to 369.8 billion yuan (46.8 billion dollars) last year from 2000. Amid a bigger appetite for insurance products, more agents are entering the market in the world's fastest growing major economy - China has about 1.47 million insurance agents at the end of 2005.

Industry watchers said with China's growing middle class, the demand will grow even faster in the future, triggering a need for an improvement in the quality of an insurance agent.

With more products coming into the market, insurance agents are being pushed to gain more financial expertise.

The Shanghai Bureau of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission is planning to launch a qualification test for specialized insurance agents in the first half of next year.

The tests for agents selling health insurance and new life products, such as investment-grade life insurance will be the first of two types to be launched.

"Insurance agents are required to be more specialized amid products innovation in the expanding market," the regulator said.

Life premiums collected in Shanghai gained 31 percent to 18.2 billion yuan (2.30 billion dollars) in the first eight months while nationwide they were 282 billion yuan (35.7 billion dollars).

"The developing market makes the job (of agents) more demanding," said Wu Qinghua, deputy director of the local insurance watchdog. "The trend triggers the need for more qualified agents with more financial expertise."

At present, the entry level for insurance agents is a high school education.

1

2

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)