Sun Life Financial Services of Canada Inc. and its joint venture partner, China Everbright Group Limited, are officially opening its insurance operations at a ceremony in Tianjin, China today.

Sun Life Everbright Life Insurance Co. Ltd. is the first foreign life insurance joint venture to operate in the municipality of Tianjin, an area with a population of approximately 10 million people. Sun Life and China Everbright were granted regulatory approval by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission to begin selling life insurance in Tianjin in April 2002.

“We are pleased to mark the official opening of Sun Life Everbright’s insurance operations in Tianjin. Our 2,000-strong sales force has been operational in China for more than a month and the initial sales results are encouraging,” says Don Stewart, chairman and CEO of Sun Life. “We expect our Chinese operations to make an important contribution to our long term growth plans in Asia.”

The addition of the Tianjin sales force boosts Sun Life Financial’s total agency force in Asia to nearly 6,000 with agents in the Philippines, India, Hong Kong, Indonesia and China.