Chinese local governments and departments are currently mobilizing enterprises to
resume operation in a bid to suit production to demand, as it calls for not only
prevention and control, but also development to defeat the novel coronavirus
epidemic.
Many enterprises, responding to the call of the nation, have resumed production in an
orderly manner, providing better guarantee for the prevention and control of the
epidemic, and maintaining normal order of the economy and the society.
Chen Da, deputy director of the Department of Trade at the National Development
and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China told a press conference on Feb. 9 that
work resumption is taking place across China except for Hubei Province, the hardest-
hit region. By Feb. 7, about 73 percent of the country’s mask production capacity had
been recovered, and about 94.6 percent of the country’s major grain production and
processing firms have resumed production, Chen introduced. The supply of natural
gas, electricity and refined oil is sufficient, and the civil aviation, railway and water
transportation sectors are on normal operation.
Impacted by the epidemic, many enterprises are facing insufficient labor, capital and
raw materials. On Feb. 9, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
issued a notice, unveiling a string of 20 measures to help companies resume
production in an orderly manner and get through the difficulty, such as enhancing the
guarantee for work resumption elements and intensifying credit support.
Besides, local governments in Zhejiang, Liaoning, Jiangsu and Guangdong have
already issued relevant measures to help enterprises solve practical problems.
“Every infrared thermometer we produce represents our contribution, and we must
race against the epidemic and finally help our country defeat it,” said the chairman of
board Liu Yi of Andon Health Co., Ltd., a producer of electronical thermometers
based in Tianjin, in a recent speech mobilizing its employees to go to the production
front.
Learning the severe shortage of disinfectants, chairman of board Yang Le of Anhui
Jinhe Industrial Co., Ltd. immediately informed the company’s production, supply
and storage departments to load and send disinfectants to Hubei to support the
province.
Masks, goggles, and disinfectants are all important materials for epidemic prevention
and control. To guarantee supply, many enterprises had resumed production in
advance during the Chinese New Year holiday.
The country has also made targeted arrangement from fiscal and finance perspective.
It is reported that the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the People’s Bank of China
(PBOC) for the first time jointly adopted the policy of special refinancing and
government-funded interest subsidies, so as to give more credit support to key
companies in epidemic control to combat the novel coronavirus outbreak. The 300-
billion-yuan ($42.9 billion) special refinancing loans allocated by the PBOC, together
with the government-funded interest subsidies, will lower the financing costs of key
enterprises in the production to less than 1.6 percent.
It’s noteworthy that the battle against the novel coronavirus outbreak has created
development opportunities for new economy, new business models and new
technologies. Thanks to China’s highly developed internet industry, at present, online
meetings and working from home are becoming a prioritized choice for many
enterprises when resuming production.
According to statistics released by DingTalk, an enterprise communication and
collaboration platform developed by Alibaba Group, over 2 million enterprises have
managed health information of their employees just days after the Chinese New Year
holiday. Nearly 100 million people are checking in with their companies via
DingTalk’s clock-in function, and around 200 million are working and having video
conferences on the app.
In the consumption and circulating sectors, the special situation caused by the
epidemic is also giving birth to greater demand on online delivery platforms. Relevant
enterprises are actively responding to such demand and guaranteeing the materials
supply for the market.
During the Chinese New Year, grocery retail platform Meituan Maicai reported a
daily sales growth of 2 to 3 times in Beijing. On e-commerce platform JD.com, the
transaction of grain products also surged by over 20 times from a year ago, while that
of instant food and dairy products went up by 10 times and 300 percent, respectively.
