With the economy picking up momentum and improving sales of its mortgage life insurance products, CARDIF Assurance Vie’s Taiwan branch posted an impressive performance last year with gross premium income reaching a record high of nearly NT$30 billion (US$95 million).
The amount of premiums received in the first quarter of this year was six times more than during the corresponding period last year, the French insurer said, adding that the company had weathered the global financial crunch with its sales returning to pre-crisis levels.
Facing a growing number of insurance companies in Taiwan cooperating with local banks in promoting their products, Ben Ng (黃旗興), general manager of the life insurer, said there was still plenty of scope for growth in insurance products sales through bank channels in the domestic market.
“Less than 10 percent of the public have mortgage life insurance, so we are striving to raise the penetration rate of such insurance in the local market this year, which is expected to serve as the main driving force behind this year’s sales growth,” Ng said.
Last year, CARDIF forged a strategic alliance with Hua Nan Commercial Bank (華南銀行) to sell mortgage life insurance, which has produced desirable results, Ng said, adding that the company will continue its efforts to expand sales through banks.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained