Recognizing the increasingly important role technology has played in recent years, especially during the fight against COVID-19, Ping An Insurance (Group) Co Ltd will increase its investment in the area in the coming years to benefit more people, said a senior company official.

Ericson Chan, chief executive officer of Ping An Technology, the technology arm of Ping An Group, said Ping An invested a total of 50 billion yuan ($7.07 billion) in technology in the past 10 years, and its investment will continue to grow this year.

"Ping An Group always lays emphasis on research and development. It is a rule of thumb for the company to spend 1 percent of our revenue on R&D. As our revenue continues to grow, we will continue to spend more," he said.

Specifically, Chan said the investment will be centered on finance, healthcare and smart cities, which have proved to be essential areas during the fight against the epidemic.

During this special period, Ping An's AskBob－an artificial intelligence-enabled consultation platform－offers free information services such as health self-checks, epidemic Q&A, psychological self-assessment and contagion community search. Its epidemic management system－another new product developed by the company－dynamically tracks pandemic information to assist local governments in decision-making for contagion prevention and control.