Measures introduced to help work resumption in Hubei

Enterprises in Hubei province are speeding up the rate of resuming production and work and a series of measurements have been taken to offer help as bottlenecks still exist in aspects of capital, cost, order and supply chain, a Hubei official said on Thursday.

Meng Chunlin, deputy director of the province's Department of Economy and Information Technology, said that there is still a gap of production resumption among different parts of the industry chain, especially for small and medium enterprises, less than 80 percent of which have resumed production.

The increase in operating costs is another problem enterprises face, as raw materials and logistics, especially the cost of labor, have increased significantly, Meng said,

"Some companies are losing their orders, and their market share has fallen sharply because they began the resumption of production over two months later than other provinces. Also, orders to export-oriented companies have been cancelled,” said Meng.

He added that most of the small and medium enterprises have a high degree of external dependence in the supply of upstream raw materials and core components, and these companies face both the problem of labor shortage and the risk of industrial chain fracture.

To ease the enterprises' burden and accelerate their resumption of production, government cadres will visit enterprises to understand the losses and impacts caused by the epidemic and help them solve the problems, Meng said.

Enterprises in Hubei also can enjoy preferential tax and rent deductions. The authorities also will periodically reduce the price of water, gas and electricity to the end of June to speed up the return of enterprises to work and production.