On July 21, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and the Shanghai municipal government issued a work plan to transform the Lin-gang Special Area of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone into a leading zone where the insurance industry is given full play to advance the development of scientific innovation.

The work plan to transform Lin-gang Special Area into a leading zone with science and technology insurance is officially unveiled in the Lin-gang Special Area on July 21. [Photo/WeChat ID: shlgguanweihui]

The plan states that the Lin-gang Special Area will be built into a science and technology insurance mecca, which includes providing technologic and insurance support for key industries, promoting a higher level of opening-up the technology insurance market, spurring insurance and scientific technology by empowering each other, and implementing technology insurance innovation talent projects.

The new policies will ensure the implementation of the major strategies for the projects, such as establishing a compensation mechanism for the comprehensive insurance of major technical equipment in fields such as civil aviation, high-end equipment manufacturing, integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, and new energy vehicles, as well as the research and development of new varieties and service models of IC insurance. The area will also offer comprehensive insurance for human clinical trials, and post-marketing drugs and medical devices in different stages.

In addition, the new policies focus on eco-friendly, low-carbon and high-quality development. Efforts are expected to be made to explore new products, technologies, models and formats of insurance to respond to climate change, enhance green economic development, promote the pilot application of index insurance, income insurance, ecological agriculture and other new products in urban climate catastrophe management, and support the development of new energy enterprises.

At the same time, in the field of new infrastructure such as network security, efforts are expected to be made to build a new network security insurance system that consists of security, risk control and services to provide comprehensive insurance solutions for enterprises.

The policies will also promote the opening-up of the science and technology insurance market. They are expected to support the Shanghai Insurance Exchange to build an international science and technology insurance trading system, promote the growth of science and technology insurance, develop the science and technology insurance model, and strengthen digital, scientific and intelligent supervision.

According to statistics, the insurance industry in Shanghai provided a total of nearly 90 billion yuan ($13.29 million) of risk protection to the public through science and technology insurance products in 2021.

The official implementation of the plan is expected to give full play to the innovation of science and technology insurance and increase the support for the real economy.

Furthermore, a scientific and technological finance alliance, which was jointly established by Bank of China's Shanghai branch, Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank and other influential financial institutions, was set up on the same day to offer financial support for developing science and technology enterprises in Lin-gang.

The Lin-gang Special Area scientific and technological finance alliance is unveiled on July 21. [Photo/WeChat ID: shlgguanweihui]