A weekly snapshot of Taiwan business news stories brought to you by CommonWealth and AmCham Taiwan’s TOPICS Insurance Industry Records Major Gains in First Half The pre-tax profit of Taiwan’s life insurance industry in the first half of 2021 reached NT$259.2 billion, a 155.9% increase from the same period last year, according to statistics released…

Companies with appropriate business models have continued to be viable. Most of the leading international companies that were once active in Taiwan’s life insurance industry have long since exited the market. The list includes Aegon, Aetna, ING, Manulife, MetLife, New York Life, and Winterthur. Now it appears likely that one of the few remaining major…

Cigna Taiwan General Manager and CEO Tim Shields doesn’t mind making mistakes and encourages his team members to make them, too, as long as they can turn those mistakes into learning experiences. A native of Edinburgh, Scotland, Tim has been working in insurance for almost three decades, the vast majority of that time spent in management roles internationally. Taiwan is…

Several of the candidates for the Democratic nomination for U.S. president are advocating a government-run plan to provide health-insurance coverage to all Americans, sometimes referred to “Medicare for All.” As a single-payer healthcare system, this type of plan is similar to Taiwan’s National Health Insurance (NHI). Could the Taiwan experience serve as a practical reference…

The Taiwan government is encouraging the country’s insurance companies to tap into their NT$23 trillion (US$767 billion) in insurance funds to help support national infrastructure and development projects. At the top of the list is the green energy portion of the government’s “5+2” key innovative industry program. With the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) committed…