As a regulator and buffer of society, insurance needs to play four roles in the process of common prosperity, namely, to be a practitioner of high-quality economic development, a builder of double-carbon finance, a promoter of rural revitalization strategy and a participant in charity and public welfare undertakings.
Author| Li Hongmin Chen Xue "Professor of Hebei University of Economics and Business"
Article | China Insurance, No. 4, 2022
The connotation of common prosperity
The Nineteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward: We must adhere to the people-centered development ideology, and constantly promote the all-round development of people and the common prosperity of all people. On August 17, 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed at the tenth meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Commission that common prosperity should be promoted in high-quality development.
What is common prosperity? Zeng Can and Zhang Xiusheng (2018) believe that in the practice of scientific socialism theory and socialism with Chinese characteristics, the content of common prosperity includes, but is not limited to, the material level, but also the spiritual level, and is constantly enriching and expanding with the development of the times. Jiang Nanping (1994) believes that common prosperity is a social phenomenon in which members of society make overall progress in material and spiritual terms, and the important feature of achieving common prosperity is to achieve the coordinated development of material and spiritual civilization. Qiu Haiping believes that common prosperity should include three levels of meaning: one is to meet the basic security of life for all people and the simple reproduction of labor force; second, under the premise of satisfying one, the gap between the rich and the poor among the members of society is not very large; and the third is to completely eliminate any gap between the rich and the poor between people.
In October 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping published an article entitled "Solidly Promoting Common Prosperity" in Qiushi, pointing out that "common prosperity is the common prosperity of all people, and the material and spiritual life of the people is rich". General Secretary Xi Jinping's article interprets the connotation of common prosperity in the new era from the perspective of the overall situation, that is, common prosperity in the new era is based on material wealth, but it goes beyond the material level, including spiritual wealth, and is common prosperity based on the overall situation of the individual.
The challenge of common prosperity
Achieving common prosperity has become the next important strategic goal of the mainland's social development. At present, the process of common prosperity also faces the following challenges.
1. There are many challenges to economic development under the new normal
The prerequisite for achieving common prosperity is the liberation of productive forces. In 2014, the mainland made the first major situation judgment that economic development has entered the "new normal". Under the "new normal", the allocation of supply-side factors is distorted, the demand side is weak, the supply and demand are structurally dislocated, and the lack of innovation in all walks of life has led to a structural deceleration of economic development, that is, productivity is bound to a certain extent, and economic development has insufficient stamina. When the economy grows at a high speed, many contradictions and problems in social development are temporarily covered up as secondary contradictions, and once the economy decelerates, the contradictions in society will become the main contradictions that emerge and break out en masse. Now, we should attach great importance to the challenges posed by the economic slowdown to the process of common prosperity. Therefore, how to solve the problems encountered in the process of the transition of the economy from high-speed development to high-quality development is an urgent need to be solved.
2. The green development of urban and rural construction cannot be delayed
In recent years, the damage caused to the ecological environment by extensive urban and rural development has become more and more serious. The old path of pollution first and treatment later will not work. In the 20 years from 2000 to 2020, the urbanization rate of the mainland increased from 36.22% to 63.89%, and the urban population increased from 450 million to 900 million. The rapid urbanization development has laid the spatial foundation and scale foundation for the rapid development of China's economy, and the mainland has realized a huge transformation from "rural China" to "urban China". However, the extensive development model has also caused great damage to the mainland ecology, mainly manifested in: First, the total consumption of resources is too large. Taking land resource consumption as an example, from 2000 to 2020, the housing construction area of real estate development enterprises increased from 650 million square meters to 9.26 billion square meters, and the housing development area increased by 1300%. Second, the energy volume is consumed too quickly. Coal consumption increased from 1 billion tons in 1990 to 4 billion tons in 2020, oil consumption from 110 million tons in 1990 to 640 million tons in 2020, and electricity consumption from 623 billion kWh in 1990 to 7486.6 billion kWh in 2020. The third is high carbon and high emissions. In 2019, China's total carbon emissions accounted for 27.2% of the world's total emissions, ranking first in the world.
The prevention and control of urban and rural pollution is facing three major threats of time urgency, heavy tasks and huge difficulties, which is a large-scale rectification campaign and a hard task.
3. Some rural areas are at risk of returning to poverty
With the deepening of the urbanization process, the reform focusing on urban development has caused a large number of rural labor to flow into the city, so that the development level of the three rural areas lags behind the development level of the whole society. There are two main types of risks faced by the rural population: first, the rural population's general low income, resulting in a small scale of household capital, weak ability to resist risks, the occurrence of illness return to poverty, disasters, poverty due to school, poverty due to old age and laziness, the risk of returning to poverty is too large; second, the level of economic development is relatively low due to imperfect rural infrastructure. Specifically, the level of agricultural production methods and technologies is far less than the level of development abroad, the productivity of agricultural busy seasons is mainly manpower and semi-machinery, and the popularity of fully mechanized agricultural productivity is not enough, and the coverage is narrow. Emerging e-commerce, Internet finance and other technologies are not mature in rural areas, so that most of the sales of rural agricultural products still use traditional sales methods, resulting in rural areas can not be more efficient and continuous development of agricultural production. How to properly solve the problem of the three rural areas, especially to prevent the rural population from returning to poverty, is a new challenge facing common prosperity.
4. It is more difficult to distribute the "cake" reasonably
Since the beginning of reform and opening up, "getting rich first and getting rich later" has led to the rapid accumulation of property by some people, followed by the deepening of the gap between the rich and the poor. The excessive gap between the rich and the poor increases the difficulty of achieving common prosperity and affects the overall happiness and sense of gain of the people. The gap between the rich and the poor is too large, which determines that dividing the "cake" is bound to be a difficult and complicated task. The mainland has been working to improve the environment in which common prosperity is achieved, but it is still difficult to reverse the warning line below the international 0.4. Vice President Wang Qishan said: "We can only seek a better way to cut the cake in the process of making a big cake, and we must not stop and argue endlessly about the way to cut the cake." The imbalance of development must be solved by development. ”
At present, the current situation of "unbalanced and insufficient" development on the mainland also increases the difficulty of distributing the cake. The imbalance in the level of development refers to the imbalance in regional development in space and the imbalance in various industries in the region, which restricts the improvement of the level of social development of the whole society; the insufficient level of development mainly refers to the fact that the mainland still has a long way to go to achieve common prosperity, and the road is obstructed and long.
The role of the insurance industry
The development of the insurance industry is related to people's livelihood, and correctly examining the status of insurance in social life and economic development is conducive to the full role of the insurance industry in common prosperity.
1. The role of promoting high-quality economic development is obvious
With the advancement of the new era, the mainland economy has transitioned from an extensive model of high-speed growth to a more scientific and rational model of high-quality development. As the main contingent of the mainland's economic development, finance is an important force in promoting the mainland's economic transformation and the steady development of the country. As one of the important pillars of the financial industry, the insurance industry not only actively fulfills the national strategic tasks, but also one of the important means to enhance the stamina of economic development.
The characteristics of large scale and flexibility of insurance funds will help insurance funds to better and more efficiently serve the development of the real economy. By the end of 2019, the use of insurance funds in the mainland reached 17.96 trillion yuan; insurance funds raised 15.55 trillion yuan for the development of the real economy through stocks and funds. In addition, in terms of supporting national key engineering projects, as of the end of 2019, the investment amount of insurance funds participating in the "Belt and Road" was as high as 1.12 trillion yuan; the investment in the construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt was as high as 500 billion yuan; the investment in supporting the transformation of government shantytowns was as high as 185 billion yuan, the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei was more than 240 billion yuan, and the revitalization of the old industrial base in Northeast China was nearly 47 billion yuan, involving a green industry debt investment plan of more than 800 billion yuan.
2. Guarantee people's livelihood and maintain social stability
In 2020, poverty alleviation has enabled hundreds of millions of people on the mainland to complete poverty alleviation. However, the task of preventing rural returns to poverty, preventing people who have just been lifted out of poverty from returning to poverty, and preventing the risk of returning to poverty will become more important in the next few years. After surveying a number of poor villages, the investigators found that the most important risk of returning to poverty faced by the people who have been lifted out of poverty is mainly manifested in the lack of working ability of the people who have been lifted out of poverty, and the risk of subsequent return to poverty is large; the spiritual poverty of the people who have escaped from poverty is the root cause of the people who are easy to return to poverty.
The inclusiveness, philanthropy and inclusiveness of insurance have a natural fit for maintaining social stability. The insurance of "one for the many, one for the crowd" can essentially improve the problem of unbalanced income distribution to a certain extent, reduce the risk of low-income people returning to poverty due to illness, returning to poverty due to disasters, returning to poverty due to schooling, returning to poverty due to old age and returning to poverty due to laziness, and narrowing the gap between rich and poor. Protecting people's livelihood is the social responsibility of insurance and the premise of the development of the insurance industry, so it is the top priority of the insurance industry to help the common prosperity of the insurance industry by continuing to do a good job in serving rural revitalization, improving charity and public welfare undertakings, enhancing the vitality and resilience of the insurance market, and establishing a sound inclusive insurance system.
The four roles of the insurance industry in common prosperity
1. Practitioners of high-quality economic development
In order to help the high-quality development of the economy, the insurance industry should shift from the old road of labor-intensive to the new road of higher quality scientific and technological innovation. Technology-enabled insurance can start from the following three aspects.
First, rely on technology. With the support of big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain and other technologies, insurance technology can be applied to the exhibition process of traditional insurance companies, insurance intermediaries and Internet insurance companies, which is conducive to technology to better meet the needs of insurance customers. In addition, insurance companies can use big data technology to comprehensively grasp and analyze the protection needs and consumer needs of existing customers, and develop more intelligent insurance products that are more suitable for the current needs of customers.
Second, the main body of innovation. The main entities that need to innovate in the insurance industry include insurance companies, Internet insurance companies, insurance intermediaries, etc. Different insurance entities have their own areas of expertise and areas that need to learn from each other, and different insurance entities can work together to promote the high-quality development of the insurance technology-enabled economy. Insurance companies can use insurance funds to invest in some emerging and dynamic innovative financial enterprises to indirectly achieve insurance innovation, such as piccolary finance established by Chinese Insurance, and improve the insurance industry's ability to cover insurance financial resources by providing An Internet financial platform, carrying out cross-border operations and industrial chain integration. In addition, the Ifsing Institute, which is funded by Chinese Life, provides one-stop comprehensive services for financial financing parties with capital needs through the provision of a financial technology platform to meet the financing needs of real enterprises, so as to better open up the situation of insurance to help the real economy.
2. Builder of double carbon finance
General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed: Carbon emissions will peak before 2030, and carbon neutrality will be achieved by 2060. In order to effectively promote the insurance system to help achieve the "double carbon" goal through green financial reform, the insurance industry can help from the perspective of insurance funds investing in green financial projects.
The insurance industry should strengthen the green investment of insurance funds and build a green insurance investment system. Green investment projects have the characteristics of long construction period, large investment scale and moderate returns, while insurance funds also have the characteristics of long investment period, stable source and large capital scale, which provides a high degree of fit for insurance fund investment to support the green transformation and upgrading of traditional energy enterprises. Insurance funds should practice the development concept of "innovation and green", and provide financing support for the transformation of the national economy to green by helping environmental protection, water affairs, pollution control, energy conservation, new energy and other fields. For example, PICC Successfully registered the industry's first "Carbon Neutral Green Bond Asset Management Product" in April 2020. The product is currently invested in operations, mainly in green bonds related to the theme of "carbon neutrality".
3. Promoters of rural revitalization strategies
Solving the problem of the three rural areas well is the most important task in our party's work, and the insurance industry should realize the revitalization of the countryside from the perspective of preventing the return to poverty. Insurance poverty alleviation should be based on "source-type poverty prevention". Insurance poverty prevention, through the development of insurance products to provide a wider range of protection, more powerful protection capabilities of the service, to achieve more accurate poverty prevention protection, for the easy to return to poverty to provide more suitable insurance protection services. Taking Hebei Province as an example, as of the end of June 2021, the "poverty prevention insurance" project has covered 94 counties in 11 prefectures and cities in the province, providing poverty prevention insurance protection for nearly 20 million people, and has paid poverty prevention insurance to more than 20,000 people who are poor due to illness, disaster and school.
When designing anti-poverty products, insurance companies should design anti-poverty products in combination with local realities. Through big data and the past experience of insurance companies, quantify the risk of returning to poverty in the region, reasonably formulate insurance terms and insurance contract rescue standards, accurately define the scope of insurance liability and compensation conditions, and implement the poverty prevention insurance quickly and steadily to achieve accurate poverty prevention in the region. At the same time, insurance companies strengthen the relevant professional training of insurance practitioners from within to enhance the sense of social responsibility of the insurance industry and even personnel. Provide more sound and intimate practical services for faster and better insurance poverty prevention projects.
4. Participants in charitable and public welfare undertakings
Insurance companies can fulfill their social responsibilities by providing "insurance + public welfare" services. Because insurance itself has the social responsibility of helping the poor and the weak and the poor. Continuous investment in public welfare charity is the intrinsic essence of the insurance industry. Established in 2007, the China Life Charity Foundation mainly realizes the social function of insurance "everyone for me, I for everyone" by participating in student assistance, poverty alleviation, emergency relief, environmental protection, etc. In addition, the "Chinese Charity Foundation" established by Chinese Insurance has carried out a number of public welfare projects, mainly for students at all stages of study. The Beijing Sunshine Insurance Love Foundation established by Sunshine Insurance covers disaster relief, poverty alleviation, disability assistance and orphan assistance.
The insurance industry should face up to the challenges faced by the industry under the "new normal", follow the trend, seize the opportunity, expand the scale of "public welfare + insurance", mobilize all parties in society to devote themselves to public welfare undertakings to the greatest extent, improve the social penetration rate of public welfare activities, and enhance the effect of "social stabilizer".
In summary, to grasp the new stage of development, the insurance industry needs to adhere to the people-centered, actively play its role in common prosperity, and assume the responsibility and obligation of "protection". This is the social responsibility that the insurance industry needs to bear in the new era.