Insurance and travel regulations eased in China

China has announced a new effort to ease restrictions on foreign insurance and travel firms, reports said this week.

Travel Insurance News - 24/09/2012

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China has announced a fresh effort to ease restrictions on foreign insurance and travel firms, reports said this week.

The news comes via the American Chamber of Commerce, which said that the change is an effort by Beijing to kick-start a recent slump in foreign investment.

According to the group’s president Christian Murck, Chinese officials had brought the measures forward in May, however this week's implementation has caught foreign entities off guard ahead of the once-in-a-decade transfer of power for the Chinese government, slated to take place early next year.

A report by the Insurance Journal said that the move has not yet been publicized by Beijing and that it is normal for such efforts to surface via foreign investors. However, officials from China’s ministry of commerce confirmed lats week that August was the third consecutive month in which direct foreign investments fell off. Officials said that the slump comes as the result of the eurozone crisis and ongoing sluggishness in the US economy.

Among the measures, the American Chamber of Commerce said that Beijing will no longer require foreign airlines to distribute fare and booking information to travel agents via the country’s state-backed system, starting next month.

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