Authors|Wang Jinyang, Wang Yongwen, Wu Mengjie, "Sunshine Insurance Group, School of Finance, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics"
Synopsis:
- To cultivate new quality productivity, the insurance industry should focus on "digital finance" and "green finance".
- The insurance industry can combine its own reality and adapt measures to local conditions to serve the development of new quality productive forces from the asset side and the liability side.
- The insurance industry needs to take "science and technology insurance" as the starting point to escort the development of new quality productivity from two aspects: science and technology insurance protection and risk reduction management.
Since it was first proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping during his inspection and investigation in Heilongjiang in September 2023, "new quality productivity" has quickly become a hot word of concern from all walks of life.
The Central Economic Work Conference held at the end of 2023 listed "leading the construction of a modern industrial system with scientific and technological innovation" as the first of the nine key tasks of economic work in 2024, and emphasized the need to promote industrial innovation with scientific and technological innovation, especially to promote new industries, new models and new kinetic energy with disruptive technologies and cutting-edge technologies, and develop new quality productivity.
At the beginning of 2024, the Politburo of the Central Committee focused on new quality productivity for the first time in the new year, and General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that "we must keep in mind that high-quality development is the last word in the new era", and pointed out that "the development of new quality productivity is an internal requirement and an important focus to promote high-quality development, and we must continue to do a good job in innovation to accelerate the development of new quality productivity".
At the same time, the 2024 "Government Work Report" will also "vigorously promote the construction of a modern industrial system and accelerate the development of new quality productivity" at the top of the top ten tasks of government work this year, and make specific arrangements.
So, as the bloodline of the national economy, how can the insurance industry inject financial momentum into the development of new productive forces?
To cultivate new quality productivity, the insurance industry should focus on "digital finance" and "green finance".
As General Secretary Xi Jinping said, the new quality of productivity is the leading role of innovation, get rid of the traditional mode of economic growth, the development path of productive forces, with high-tech, high-efficiency, high-quality characteristics, in line with the new development concept of the advanced productive forces quality; The leap of labor objects and their optimal combination is the basic connotation, with the substantial increase in total factor productivity as the core symbol, characterized by innovation, the key is high quality, and the essence is advanced productivity.
According to the Risk Assessment Report 2023 of China's Insurance Industry released by the China Insurance Security Fund in October 2023, China's insurance industry is in a stage of transformation and still needs to overcome many difficulties and challenges to promote high-quality development. This is mainly reflected in six aspects: the coexistence of stock problems and new risks on the investment side, the transformation of life insurance is still in the stage of overcoming difficulties, the risk of property insurance needs to be continuously paid attention to, the capital replenishment pressure of insurance companies is greater, the governance capacity of insurance companies needs to be continuously improved, and the compliance management is insufficient.
Therefore, China's insurance industry, which is in a period of deep transformation and change, should accelerate the development and cultivation of its own new quality productivity. The author believes that China's insurance industry can use "digital finance" and "green finance" as a starting point to accelerate the development and cultivation of its own new quality productivity.
On the one hand, scientific and technological innovation can give birth to new industries, new models and new kinetic energy, which is the core element of the development of new quality productivity.
Industry is the carrier of productive forces, and only when scientific and technological achievements are industrialized can they become social productive forces. It is necessary to apply the achievements of scientific and technological innovation to specific industries and industrial chains in a timely manner, transform and upgrade traditional industries, cultivate and expand emerging industries, lay out and build future industries, and improve the modern industrial system.
For the insurance industry, digital finance refers to the application of scientific and technological innovation achievements such as the Internet, blockchain, big data, artificial intelligence and cloud computing to the insurance business value chain, resulting in new products, new services and new formats, as well as the application of digital technology by insurance institutions to process transformation and product innovation.
On the basis of tracking the development of cutting-edge technologies in financial technology and the best practices of digital transformation at home and abroad, various types of institutions in China's insurance industry can promote their own digital and intelligent transformation from product design and pricing, marketing and sales management, underwriting and claims management, risk management and digital talent training according to local conditions, and do a good job in digital finance.
On the other hand, green development is the background color of high-quality development, and new quality productivity itself is green productivity.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out at the 11th collective study of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee that "we must accelerate the green transformation of the development mode and help carbon peak and carbon neutrality", "accelerate the innovation of green technology and the promotion and application of advanced green technologies, strengthen the green manufacturing industry, develop the green service industry, expand the green energy industry, develop green and low-carbon industries and supply chains, and build a green and low-carbon circular economy system" "continue to optimize the economic policy toolbox that supports green and low-carbon development, give full play to the leading role of green finance, and create an efficient ecological and green industrial cluster" At the same time, it emphasizes "vigorously advocating a green and healthy lifestyle in the whole society". Therefore, green sustainability is the core feature and requirement of new quality productivity.
On February 8, 2024, under the unified guidance of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the three major stock exchanges issued the Sustainability Report (Trial) (Draft for Comments) under the unified guidance of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. This is an important milestone in building a standardized and unified system of sustainable development information disclosure rules with Chinese characteristics.
China's insurance industry should promote green finance from a strategic perspective, integrate the concept of green sustainability into its "governance-strategy-impact, risk and opportunity management-indicators and goals", increase support for green, low-carbon and circular economy, and prevent environmental, social and governance risks.
From the "asset side" and "liability side" to serve the development of new quality productivity
The 2024 Government Work Report makes specific arrangements for accelerating the development of new quality productivity from three aspects: "promoting the optimization and upgrading of industrial and supply chains", "actively cultivating emerging industries and future industries", and "further promoting the innovation and development of the digital economy". At the press conference of the "Minister's Channel" of the National People's Congress and the National People's Congress on March 11, the director of the State Administration of Financial Supervision said in an interview that serving new quality productivity is the key focus of high-quality financial development.
The author believes that the insurance industry can combine its own reality and adapt measures to local conditions to serve the development of new quality productive forces from the asset side and the liability side.
●Serve the development of new quality productivity from the asset side
The new quality productivity emphasizes originality and disruptive scientific and technological innovation, which in turn gives birth to new industries, new models and new kinetic energy. This will be reflected in strategic emerging industries and future industries.
The "14th Five-Year Plan" proposes to identify eight strategic emerging industries, including the new generation of information technology, biotechnology, new energy, new materials, high-end equipment, new energy vehicles, green environmental protection, aerospace and marine equipment. In January 2014, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other seven departments issued the "Implementation Opinions on Promoting the Innovation and Development of Future Industries", forward-looking planning, deployment and focus on promoting six future industries, including future manufacturing, future information, future materials, future energy, future space and future health.
The 2024 Government Work Report also makes specific arrangements in terms of "actively cultivating emerging industries and future industries", such as "consolidating and expanding the leading advantages of industries such as intelligent networked new energy vehicles", "accelerating the development of cutting-edge hydrogen energy, new materials, innovative drugs and other industries", "actively building new growth engines such as biomanufacturing, commercial aerospace, and low-altitude economy", and "opening up new tracks such as quantum technology and life sciences". At the same time, in terms of "promoting the optimization and upgrading of the industrial chain and supply chain", the "Government Work Report" clearly proposes to "promote the high-end, intelligent and green transformation of traditional industries" and "promote the development of small and medium-sized enterprises".
Insurance funds have the characteristics of "large investment volume" and "long-term", and are an important source of high-quality and stable funds for long-term capital. China's insurance industry can promote the virtuous cycle of "technology-industry-finance" and help and serve the development of new productive forces by increasing indirect investment in venture capital, equity investment, equity funds and venture capital funds in the fields of scientific and technological innovation, strategic emerging industries and future industries, specialized and special new small and medium-sized enterprises, and high-end, intelligent and green transformation of traditional industries.
●Serve the development of new quality productivity from the debt side
Economic risk compensation and risk reduction management are two important aspects of the insurance industry to play the role of economic shock absorber and social stabilizer. The author believes that the insurance industry can use "science and technology insurance" and "green insurance" as the starting point to promote economic risk compensation and risk reduction management, and serve the development of new quality productivity.
As the core element of the development of new quality productivity, scientific and technological innovation has not only given birth to new industries, new models and new kinetic energy, but also brought about some new problems that are difficult to solve by traditional insurance products and services. This requires the insurance industry to take "science and technology insurance" as the starting point to escort the development of new quality productivity from two aspects: science and technology insurance protection and risk reduction management.
When it comes to science and technology insurance, it refers to the insurance that takes the tangible or intangible property related to the technological innovation and production and operation activities of science and technology enterprises, the body or life of employees of science and technology enterprises, the economic liability of science and technology enterprises to third parties, and the expected results of innovation activities as the subject of insurance. In this regard, on the basis of strengthening forward-looking research and improving its own pricing and risk control capabilities, the insurance industry can establish and improve a technology insurance product and service system covering insurance protection and risk reduction management in all aspects of R&D, production and sales of science and technology enterprises, so as to meet the personalized needs of strategic emerging industries and future industries and specialized and special new small and medium-sized enterprises in the process of scientific and technological innovation.
In addition, green sustainability is the core feature and requirement of new quality productivity. As mentioned above, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized at the first collective study of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in the new year that green development is the background color of high-quality development, and that new quality productivity itself is green productivity; it is necessary to accelerate the green transformation of development mode to help carbon peak and carbon neutrality; firmly establish and practice the concept that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, unswervingly follow the path of ecological priority and green development; and vigorously advocate a green and healthy lifestyle in the whole society.
In 2022, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) issued the Notice on Printing and Distributing the Statistical System for Green Insurance Business, which defines green insurance for the first time: green insurance refers to the general term for the economic activities of the insurance industry such as providing risk protection and financial support in terms of environmental resource protection and social governance, green industry operation and green life consumption.
For the insurance industry, with "green insurance" as the starting point, the liability side includes the insurance products and services provided by insurance institutions around green, low-carbon and sustainable development, and the asset side includes the investment of insurance funds in the field of green industry.
The above-mentioned "Notice" also points out that the green insurance liability business of each insurance company should be counted step by step according to the combination of product dimension and customer dimension, and green insurance should be divided into three parts: environmental, social and governance (ESG) risk insurance business, green industry insurance business and green life insurance business. Not only that, the 2024 Government Work Report also clearly proposes to "promote the high-end, intelligent and green transformation of traditional industries" and "accelerate the development of modern producer services" in terms of "promoting the optimization and upgrading of industrial and supply chains".
In this regard, China's insurance industry can comprehensively promote the practical exploration of green insurance through systematic design, forward-looking research and innovative practice based on its own positioning and the needs of the development of new quality productivity, and build a multi-scenario and multi-category green insurance product and service system.
(Editor in charge: Liu Qiang)
