BEIJING, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- A survey conducted by the Business School of the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) showed that 70 percent of the companies can maintain positive cash flow over three months amid the novel coronavirus epidemic in China.
A report on the survey released on Monday showed among the 761 companies joined the survey, 69.23 percent of them expect to keep liquidity in over three months and 43.83 percent can sustain over six months, reflecting that most companies are able to survive from the epidemic but if it can't be suppressed within three months, some companies will face the risk of bankruptcy.
The report said enterprises with different business models have different expectations, as 68.39 percent of the enterprises mainly involved in offline operation can maintain positive cash flow in three month and the proportion for online business companies is 72.87 percent.
"The most crucial challenge faced by companies is maintaining cash flows," said He Wenlong, a professor at the Business School of UIBE, suggested that entrepreneurs should fully pay attention to and take advantage of the policies offered by the government, such as subsidy for online training, compensation for business shutdowns, rent reduction and exemption, social insurance and housing fund reduction and exemption and the deferred payment policy.
Companies can also squeeze out the redundant resources within their structure, accelerate the collection of accounts receivable if possible, and broaden the existing financing channels of the enterprise, He added.
The survey showed only 13 percent of companies expect to reduce their investment in innovation, while 54 percent said they will continue to increase their innovation investment in 2020, and 33 percent said their total innovation investment will remain unchanged.
According to the report, during the epidemic outbreak, the performance of enterprises mainly engaged in online business declined significantly less than that of enterprises mainly engaged in offline business.
Wu Jianfeng, a professor at the Business School of UIBE, noted the offline business enterprises can open online business channels to expand sales and deal with unexpected situations in a more flexible way.
(Edited by Yang Qi, kateqiyang@xinhua.org)
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