China to bolster support for SMEs hit by COVID-19
A China-Europe freight train pulls out of the Port of Lianyungang in Jiangsu Province, April 12. In Q1, China-Europe freight trains made 1,941 trips and transported 174,000 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) of freight, a year-on-year increase of 15% and 18% respectively. Photo: Wang Jianmin/XINHUA
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said China will roll out more targeted measures to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) hit by the COVID-19 outbreak restart production and further develop.
Xi made the remarks during a visiting inspection to east China’s Zhejiang Province from March 29 to April 1.
Visiting the service center of an industrial park producing high-grade auto parts and molds in Ningbo on March 29, Xi talked with the park management. He also met with SME managers and their employees returning to Zhejiang.
A series of policies have been introduced and will be improved responsively as the situation changes, said Xi, adding that more targeted measures will be rolled out to help SMEs restart production and develop.
“We need to rise to the challenges. With the support of the Party and the government, we must stick together through thick and thin to overcome the difficulties,” Xi stressed.
Xi’s visit to the Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan amid the epidemic has sent a powerful signal that China will not only promote the orderly resumption of work and production at home, but also keep the international supply chain unimpeded and ensure normal economic and trade activities across the globe, said Ni Yueju, a research fellow from the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
With the epidemic basically under control and the steady resumption of work and production domestically, China is working hard to promote the restoration of the global industrial chain, said Huang Zuhui, a professor from the China Academy for Rural Development at Zhejiang University.
Ni said that the private sector occupies a pivotal position in China’s economic development, contributing more than 50% of the country’s tax revenue and accounting for more than 60% of its GDP, investment in fixed assets and outbound direct investment.
In light of the epidemic prevention and control, private SMEs have fully utilized their advantage in flexibility to meet both domestic and international demand for the production of epidemic prevention materials, said Zhang Weifu, vice president of Nanjing University of Finance and Economics.
No economy or country can fight the pandemic alone. Only by sticking to opening up and sharing can we ease its impact. Zhang said that China is an important part of the global industrial chain. The country’s measures for resuming work and production can provide useful experience for global economic development.
In Ni’s view, although it has severely affected some of China’s traditional industries, COVID-19 has also propelled such emerging industries as smart manufacturing, unmanned distribution, online consumption and healthcare. In the future, we should continue to promote the development of the internet-based digital economy, accelerate industrial intelligent transformation, and facilitate industrial upgrading and high-quality growth.
edited by JIANG HONG