This week marks the 17th anniversary of China Pacific Insurance Company, and the firm formally released a carefully designed environmentally-friendly shopping bag to mark the occasion.

CPIC says it has been working on the bag since March this year and received a warm response from its employees for the design. In addition to encouraging its own employees and clients to use the environmentally-friendly bag when they are shopping, CPIC will carry out a series of activities across China, encouraging other people to use the bag. And by using the bag, they are of course providing CPIC free advertising.

As a responsible insurance company, CIPC says it has been actively fulfilling its social responsibilities. Apart from the environmental initiatives, the company has been devoted to helping the orphans and the disabled in China. As usual, it donated RMB100,000, which was intended for the company's anniversary celebration, to Shanghai Children's Welfare Center this year to help the center improve its medical facilities.

Headquartered in Shanghai, China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., Ltd was established on the basis of China Pacific Insurance Co., Ltd, which was founded on May 13, 1991. The group has several subsidiaries: China Pacific Life Insurance Co., Ltd, China Pacific Property Insurance Co., Ltd, China Pacific Asset Management Co., Ltd, China Pacific Insurance (H.K.) Co., Ltd, and Pacific-ING Life Insurance Co., Ltd. It also has representative offices in New York and London.

China's Ministry of Commerce has also drafted a rule on the use of paid plastic bags and is soliciting suggestions for the rule across the country. As part of the rule, the Ministry of Commerce will punish supermarkets and shopping malls that provide free plastic bags to consumers after this rule is enacted on June 1, 2008. Ministry of Commerce's new rule asks that the price of plastic bags must not be lower than their cost and the retail sites must not give away any free plastic bags to consumers by any means, including offering discounts, or they will be fined up to RMB30000.