SEOUL - Korea Life Insurance, South Korea's No 2 life insurer, said Wednesday that it planned to establish a joint venture in China in a bid to make inroads into the world's second-largest economy.

Korea Life signed an agreement with China's state-run fund provider Zhejiang International Business Group (ZIBG) to set up a joint life insurer in Hangzhou, capital city of Zhejiang province, the South Korean life insurer said in an e-mailed statement.

The 50-50 joint venture with a capital of 500 million yuan ($78 million) aimed to begin operating from the end of 2012.

Korea Life would be in charge of management.The South Korean life insurer reached a preliminary deal with the ZIBG to establish a joint venture back in December 2009 before receiving approval from the Chinese insurance regulator for the establishment last month. Korea Life said that it aimed to gain a foothold through the venture in the Yangtze River Delta, the main industrial region of China, expanding its business into Shanghai, Jiangsu and Sichuan in the near future.

The life insurer, a subsidiary of South Korea's family-run conglomerate Hanwha Group, noted that the Chinese insurance market is the world's fifth-largest by premiums with an annual growth rate of around 20 percent.