BEIJING, Feb.27 (Xinhua) -- To promote work and production resumption amid epidemic, China's policymakers have rolled out a slew of measures including reducing taxes, increasing fiscal spending, injecting liquidity into the financial system, and lowering costs of electricity, natural gas and water for companies. Statistics show that the resumption rate of companies in such industries as petroleum and petrochemical, communication, power grid, and transportation have exceeded 95 percent.
Insiders consider production resumption as the next-stage focus and expect a steady economic growth for 2020 despite the epidemic given the intensification of countercyclical monetary policy intervention.
Central SOEs take leading role
China's centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have carried out targeted, safe and orderly work and production resumption with sound epidemic prevention and control in place.
Over 80 percent of central SOEs' production subsidiaries have resumed operation, and more than 95 percent of the companies in the sectors of petroleum and petrochemical, communication, electricity and transport have resumed work, said Ren Hongbin, vice chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), at a press conference.
State Grid Corporation of China said on February 24 that 452 35KV-and-above, including 2 UHV and 27 500KV, power transmission and transformation projects had restarted work as of February 18, The length of restored lines totaled 12,055 km and the capacity of restored substations reached 83,810 MVA. Meanwhile, five hydropower and new energy projects have resumed work.
The company plans to resume work on key operating areas of 6 major projects, including ±800 KV Yazhong-Jiangxi UHVDC Project, while kicking off construction of projects such as the ±800 KV Northern Shannxi-Hubei UHVDC Project, it said.
Three Gorges Corporation announced work resumption via a video conference on February 24, announcing to commence construction of 25 new energy projects totaling 3.92 million KW with an investment of 58 billion yuan.
Located in Guangdong, Jiangsu, Fujian, Ningxia, Hebei and other 9 provinces and regions, the new projects are estimated to offer 17,000 jobs for construction and will directly empower concerted work and production resumption of all links on the industrial chain, the company said.
China Electronic Corporation said on February 24 that as of February 20, the work resumption rate of Huada Semiconductor, one of its subsidiaries, has exceeded 90 percent and more than 70 percent of employees have come back to work. Chip design, processing, product delivery and key projects are proceeding in an orderly manner.
State Power Investment Corporation said all its subsidiaries have restored production as of February 17, while major projects, such as Ulanqab Wind Power Base Phase I Demonstration Project, Ganzi Renewable Energy Base Project Phase I, Xinjiang Multicolored Bay Smart Power Plant and Jiangsu Binhai Offshore Wind Farm project, are gradually resuming construction.
Dalian Shipbuilding Industry, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation, has restored key equipment production and construction in a bid to meet contract deadlines. The company plans to launch eight and deliver 15 ships during the first half of 2020.
Over 400 production units under China National Nuclear Corporation have restored work and resumed construction on many national major projects. Additionally, a series of key projects of Power Construction Corporation of China, China Communications Construction Company, China Railway Construction Corporation and China Railway Group Limited are under safe and orderly progressing.
Work and production resumption of central SOEs' sends upbeat signal for the society and could act as cardiotonic for economic development, said Li Jin, chief researcher of China Enterprise Research Institute.
Concerted efforts and policies
Chinese authorities have been working together in organizing and promoting work and production resumption, providing key support for addressing problems regarding manpower, funding and raw materials,
For example, a total of 300 billion yuan low-cost special refinancing was set up to provide targeted preferential fund support. "Green channels" for bond registration and issuance have been established to facilitate the financing of companies fighting against the epidemic. These measures contribute to ensure sufficient liquidity in companies.
Additionally, China is to temporarily reduce or exempt corporate social insurance premiums, medical insurance contributions, and defer payments made to the housing provident fund for enterprises. Specifically, over 500 billion yuan born by businesses to pay premiums on pension, unemployment, and job-related injury insurance (the Three Types of Social Insurance) is expected to be cut.
Cong Liang, Secretary-General of National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said on February 24 the country would continue to study and roll out targeted measures to reduce taxes and administrative fees, assisting small- and medium-sized companies in overcoming difficulties. Meanwhile, China is intensifying efforts to meet the need in manpower, lands and capital, accelerate under-construction and newly-commenced projects and stabilize the society.
Recently, NDRC has decided to lower power and natural gas use costs for companies and cut the prices of refined oil products for a specific period, so as to support work/production resumption. It’s worth noting that the reduced power use cost is estimated to surpass 5.9 billion yuan.
Power/natural gas suppliers responded with many measures to relieve business pressure. For instance, six measures of China Resources Gas Group, which were issued on February 23, have benefited at least 236,000 commercial and industrial users, offering solid help.
On February 22, the State Grid Corporation of China rolled out eight measures, which reduce costs for companies by 48.9 billion yuan. On the same day, China Southern Power Grid also issued five measures to implement the phased power cost reduction policy, which means it will reduce and eliminate power fees by as much as 10.6 billion yuan for general businesses and large industrial enterprises from February 1 to June 30.
"Promoting work and production resumption is a core for next-stage national economic development and the work has begun", according to Wang Yupeng, chief analyst in macroeconomics with Dongxing Securities, noting that in 2020, macroeconomic policies should respond to impacts of the epidemic. Given the intensified countercyclical monetary policy intervention, economic growth is expected to remain stable this year, he said. (Edited by Niu Huizhe, niuhuizhe@xinhua.org)
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