Corporate Visit to AIG on the Bund

Today we visited American International Group, Inc. (AIG), a major multinational insurance and financial services company. We met with a Belgian ex-pat executive with AIG who overseas China, Japan and Taiwan, and formerly oversaw Africa from a base in Johannesburg, South Africa. Then we went a few blocks further downtown to the Bund and toured AIA, a branch of AIG. We saw CV Starr's original office (first picture below) which is now a museum about AIG's founding.

According to the website available HERE:

"In 1919, American entrepreneur, C.V. Starr, traveled from California to a flourishing port town in eastern China - Shanghai. There, he found many insurance companies writing policies for individuals and for businesses from abroad, but not for the Chinese people and their enterprises. Starr immediately recognized the vast underserved market in the local population and established the first foreign life insurance operation to offer products and services to Chinese nationals. Relying on the talent and ingenuity of local agents and managers, the company soon established branches throughout China and Southeast Asia.

"AIG's relationship to China continues today. The company was the first foreign insurer to reenter the market in 1992 and has been a leader in the development of China's insurance and financial markets as well as investing in critical infrastructure and other local economic and social priorities.

"AIG is continually looking for ways to build upon its history and commitment to China, and reaching out to underserved markets. That is why AIG is supporting microfinance efforts in the country and is focusing on five provinces identified by the government as development priorities."

During World War II, AIG ceased operations in China, resuming them for only two years in 1947 before the Cultural Revolution under Mao Tse Tung kicked them out again. In the interim, the AIA building on the Bund was used as a police station, a shipping company, and a customs office. When AIG returned in the mid-1990s after negotiating a long-term lease for the building with the Chinese government (nobody owns land in China, just long-term leases), much of the original furniture was still present.

Then we went to the top of the AIA building (9th floor), which offers a good view of the river. The difference in architecture from one side of the river is remarkable: one side being late 19th century, the other having been constructed within the last 20 years. The Oriental Pearl Tower can be seen across the river, though the top was made invisible by air pollution.