For example, clients can pay 10 yuan ($1.44) to buy its pension annuity insurance product, or 19.9 yuan to buy one-year of public transportation safety insurance.

The growth will come from the development of enterprise annuity and voluntary retirement products.

- China's total enterprise annuity funds hit 2.98 trillion yuan (about $419 billion) at the end of the first quarter of the year, official data showed.

In the first three months, the investment returns of enterprise annuity funds reached 44.02 billion yuan, with the weighted average rate of return standing at 1.55 percent, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

The regulator will promote endowment insurance institutions to focus on the development of the types of business that have a retirement planning feature, such as commercial endowment insurance and the management of enterprise and occupational annuity funds.

Participants in sectors of enterprise annuity and occupational annuity reached about 58 million.

Currently, there are three major pillars of the pension insurance system in China: the State-run fundamental insurance, enterprises' annuity provided by employers and commercial pension insurance.

The premiums of annuity insurance grew 38.8 percent, while those of life insurance dropped 3.2 percent compared with that in 2019, the association said.

In breakdown, life insurance premiums reached 89.16 billion yuan, or 63.9 percent of the personal insurance's total, while annuity insurance premiums soared by 58.6 percent year-on-year to 28.32 billion yuan, ranking second in terms of income.

Zhang Wangjun, an official of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), said more will be done to reform the investment side of the capital market, promote the counter-cyclical investment by institutions, and improve the investment channels of social security funds, insurance funds and annuity funds in a bid to foster long-term stable investment forces.

Efforts will be made to encourage mid to long-term funds into the capital market and promote positive interaction between the capital market and social security funds, pension funds, annuity funds and insurance funds, the report said.

Such insurance programs refer to private pension annuity products offered to improve income streams for the elderly, with pensioners receiving the start of their payments when they reach 60-years-old.

The national social security fund, basic pension fund and annuity fund will be supported to expand their capital market investment scope.

Perceptions on and behaviors for retirement planning continue to improve when China's personal pension policy landed as a third pillar to support the country's pension system with the basic endowment insurance as the first pillar, and the enterprise annuity as the second.

- China's total enterprise annuity funds reached a new high of 2.32 trillion yuan ($358 billion) by the end of the first quarter of the year, official data shows.

In the first three months, the investment returns of enterprise annuity funds neared 6 billion yuan, with the weighted average rate of return standing at 0.3 percent, data from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security shows.

By the end of March, the aggregate volume of enterprise annuity funds had increased by 66.79 billion yuan compared with the end of last year, while the number of participating employees rose from 27.18 million to 27.79 million during the period, the ministry said.

China has 22 enterprise annuity fund management institutions as of the first quarter, including 11 companies managing public offering funds.

China's total enterprise annuity funds reached a new high of 2.32 trillion yuan ($358 billion) by the end of the first quarter of the year, official data shows.

"As awareness of the need for insurance and retirement planning increases among mainland customers, products such as health and annuity insurance are becoming more popular," he said.

Currently, there are three major pillars of the insurance system: the State-run fundamental insurance, enterprises annuity provided by employers and commercial pension insurance.

As of the end of March, China's enterprise annuity funds totaled 1.86 trillion yuan ($262.3 billion), up 66.07 billion yuan from the end of last year, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

China launched enterprise annuities in 2004 as a form of a supplementary pension plan, under which both employers and employees must contribute to enterprise annuity plans.

In recent years, as the country's elderly population has increased, more and more employees have signed up for the annuity plans.

The average yield for China's enterprise annuity funds stood at 8.3 percent last year, with the aggregate investment return reaching 125.8 billion yuan ($17.7 billion), Shanghai Securities News reported Thursday.

By the end of last year, the total amount of the enterprise annuity funds neared 1.8 trillion yuan, covering around 25.48 million employees.

Having logged remarkable growth since 2013, annuity funds have become an important force in China's old-age security system, said the report.

China launched the enterprise annuity program in 2004, a supplemental occupational pension insurance offered through employers, in a bid to improve its social security system.

To defuse financial risks at Anbang, the regulator approved the establishment of Dajia Insurance Group, which was registered on June 25, 2019 in Beijing with 20.36 billion yuan of capital, to take over equity in Anbang's life insurance, annuity insurance and asset management operations.

The annuity insurance unit of Dajia carried out pilot old-age service projects at core areas in cities.

Dajia is transitioning into the business model of mainstream insurance companies by moving from short-term business to medium-and long-term business while developing annuity and medical insurances.

The development of wealth management subsidiaries of commercial banks and insurers will further diversify household savings, which will be increasingly invested in medium－and long-term investment markets such as the annuity market.

Support will be given to developing, by drawing upon international experience, diversified pension annuity insurance products and medical insurance and accidental injury insurance that are tailored for the needs of those over 60 years of age.

… It is of great significance to bring in more long-term institutional investment of all kinds, especially corporate annuity funds — funds contributed by enterprises and employees to supplement employees' retirement benefits," Hong said.

By the end of June 2018, the company had approximately 275 million long-term individual and group members in life insurance, annuity products and accident and health insurance in China, the company's statement said.

She said about 95 percent of the policies issued to mainland visitors this year were medical or protective in nature, such as coverage for critical illness, medical, whole-life, term-life and annuity products.

It added that a certain proportion of new shares should also seek enterprise annuity funds and commercial insurance funds.

"Previously, only public offering funds and social security funds could enjoy priorities to subscribe new shares offline, and now basic endowment insurance funds, enterprise annuity funds and commercial insurance funds have become new beneficiaries," said Hao Yansu, director of the school of insurance at the Central University of Finance and Economics.

Li Shaowei, vice-president of China Securities, said the participation of basic pension funds, enterprise annuity funds and commercial insurance funds can also help promote more market-oriented pricing of new shares.

Renee Schaaf, chief operating officer of Principal International, said China has good conditions to develop its enterprise annuity market.

He said the investment yield for enterprise annuity also plummeted to a five-year low of 3.03 percent last year.

Enterprise annuity insurance, a supplementary plan for company employees, covered about 72 million people by the end of March.