China's manufacturing city Dongguan announces measures to support local companies

PR82876

DONGGUAN, China, Feb. 14, 2020 /Xinhua=KYODO JBN/--

Worries about the Chinese economy occur as many provinces of the country have

postponed business operations of some companies, shops and factories in an

effort to curb the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19). However, Dongguan,

the south China manufacturing city, has been taking actions to help local

companies address difficulties and impacts brought by the epidemic.

The Information Office of the Guangdong Provincial Government held the press

conference recently, on which the work resumption situation of Dongguan was

introduced. By the night of Feb. 10, Dongguan has seen the orderly and off-peak

work resumption of 4,491 local enterprises, with 79.54% of them belonging to

the manufacturing industry.  

"The epidemic poses no threat to Dongguan's future overall development," said

Liu Jintang, deputy director of Bureau of Industry and Information Technology

of Dongguan. The city's industry has 7.4% average annual growth rate, occupying

13.3% of the added value of industrial companies above the designated scale of

Guangdong province, with the added value of advanced manufacturing and hi-tech

manufacturing industries accounting for 54.2% and 42.2% respectively. "Data

prove the resilience and anti-risk ability of Dongguan's economy." added Liu.

The epidemic will have adverse impact on Dongguan's industrial growth to some

extent in the first half of this year, especially in the first quarter. But in

the long run, its positive economic fundamentals and high quality development

remain unchanged, as Liu estimated.

To cope with the negative influences of the epidemic, Dongguan announces

positive policies. On Feb. 7, 15 policies were introduced to support local

enterprises, including 55 preferential measures like rental-exemption or

rental-free, tax reduction, loan transfer and renewal, talents introduction.

The move aims to promote the resumption of small and medium-sized companies and

reduces the bad influences of epidemic to businesses to the minimum level.

It is estimated the measures will help relieve the burden of companies with a

total value of 2.5 billion yuan. Specifically, the measure of providing

subsidies to stabilize employment formulated by the Human Resources and Social

Security Bureau of Dongguan will help relieve the burden of companies with a

total value of 168 million yuan. More than 190 thousand companies and 1.21

million employees will benefit from it.

Companies face such unexpected challenges brought by epidemic control and work

resumption delay as labour insufficiency, bearing negative impacts on the

normal operation and production of manufacturing companies in Dongguan.

To help enterprises recruit suitable employees as soon as possible, Dongguan

has launched an online job fair, releasing a total of 83,000 job demand

information from 1,153 enterprises. A special post column for job demand on

epidemic prevention and control necessities has been set up, which can improve

recruitment efficiency.

Song Qinggang, an entrepreneur in local advertising industry, said the policies

Dongguan released to support enterprises are very useful, like tax reduction

and rental reduction, reducing the burden for operation and giving great

support and encouragement to manufacturing enterprises.

In addition, Dongguan has also promoted a number of measures just in time to

support the local manufacturing industry, especially small and medium-sized

enterprises. On Feb. 6, Dongguan released the upgraded action plan to support

local enterprises, introducing ten measures from the two aspects of increasing

capital and expanding production, and optimizing development environment, to

facilitate the city's industrial transformation and upgrading.

Meanwhile, Dongguan further strengthens its service capacity for small and

medium-sized enterprises. The local government comprehensively integrates data

related to enterprises, coordinating resources elements of land, technology,

capital, talent and other aspects, and further optimizes relevant functions of

the information platform called "Qi Guan Jia". Offline and online measures are

combined to improve service quality. Moreover, the working mechanism of

enterprise service specialist has been specially set up to make the service

more professional.

Local government and enterprises are optimistic about whether businesses will

be affected after the outbreak. "Once the outbreak is under control, the

consumption and investment delayed earlier will be released, and the industrial

economy of Dongguan will show compensatory growth," said Liu. The temporary

suppression of market demand might lead to a rebound in orders across

industries.

Source: Bureau of Industry and Information Technology of Dongguan