Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region is becoming an increasingly important market for property and casualty insurance companies. Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance Company of China (Ping An Property) opened its branch in Tibet yesterday, a move to spread its wings across the country.

Approved by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, the company, the property and casualty insurance arm of the Ping An Insurance (Group) Co, set up the new branch with nearly 30 staff in management and sales, bringing the number of its branches to 40 in the country.

"The Tibetan branch is the last provincial-level subsidiary Ping An Property set up in China. Its establishment demonstrates that Ping An Property has completed its network expansion across the country and will help improve the company's service qualties," said the company's general manager Wu Peng.

Ping An Property showed confindence in its development in Tibet. Wu said the Tibetan branch will focus on businesses such as auto insurance, liability insurance and accident insurance, serving the Tibetans as well as businessmen and travelles, both home and abroad.

Demands for insurance in Tibet is going up fast with the region's economic development. Opening of the Qinghai-Tibet railway which has already brought eonomic benefits to the remote region, for instance, is pushing up local demand for insurance service remarkably.

Tibet realized a premium income of 55 million yuan (US$7.12 million) in the first two months of this year, an increase of 73.87 percent over the same period last year, ranking first in the country by growth rate, data from the regulator's Sichuan branch showed. The regulator has no branch in Tibet so far and the local insurance work is under the charge of its neighboring Sichuan Province's branch.

Property insurance premiums in the region rose 7.5 percent and 24 percent year-on-year in 2005 and 2006 to reach 157 million yuan and 195 million yuan respectively, representing an upward growing trend.

Ping An Property is the third property insurance company entering Tibet's infant but booming insurance market, after PICC Property & Casualty Insurance Co and Anbang Property & Casualty Insurance Co.