Cathay Insurance Co. (Shanghai) , a subsidiary of Taiwan's Cathay Financial Holding Co., has been given regulatory approval to establish a branch in Fujian province, a corporate source said Friday. The Cathay venture in Fujian will become the first foreign-invested property and casualty insurer in the mainland under a China policy to develop the Haixi Economic Zone on the west coast of the Taiwan Strait. The zone comprises the whole of Fujian province and 14 neighbouring cities in Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Guangdong provinces. Cathay Insurance (Shanghai) applied to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission to open a branch in the planned Haixi Economic Zone because more than 5,000 Taiwanese companies have maintained manufacturing operations in the Fujian area, focusing mainly on machinery, electronics, textile and chemical processing, an official of the company said. Currently there are 19 property and casulty insurance companies in Fujian province, all of which are locally financed and owned. Shanghai Cathay Insurance, a joint venture between Cathay Life Insurance Co., Taiwan's largest life insurer, and Cathay Century Insurance, a property and casualty insurer, was established in Shanghai in September 2008 with paid-in capital of 400 million Chinese yuan. 