More businesses normalize their operations

Most foreign-funded enterprises in Shanghai are gradually resuming operations with the support of local authorities.

According to the recent monitoring data of 697 key foreign-funded enterprises by the Shanghai Foreign Investment Association, over 90 percent of key service companies have resumed work, while the proportion of key manufacturing enterprises resuming work is about 70 percent, and that of key pillar industries such as integrated circuits and biomedicine reaches over 80 percent, said Liu Min, deputy director of the Shanghai Commission of Commerce.

Liu also noted on Saturday that the Fortune Global 500 enterprises and headquarters in Shanghai posted a high rate of resumption of work.

Among the key enterprises monitored, nearly 90 percent of companies invested by Fortune Global 500 enterprises have resumed work, so have 93 percent of the regional headquarters of transnational corporations and 87 percent of foreign-funded research and development centers in the city.

"We will also actively help foreign enterprises to make good use of Shanghai's newly issued 28 measures to provide the best services for enterprises, so as to help them tide over difficulties and resume production and operation as soon as possible," she said.

Of note, the commission has immediately organized translations of the 28 measures to enable foreign enterprises and investors to better understand the policy. The English version and Japanese version have been issued on the official website of the commerce commission as well as its official WeChat account.

Among the most popular measures is the policy of strengthening special financial and credit support for enterprises playing key roles in the epidemic prevention. The commission has recommended more than 100 foreign-funded enterprises to the relevant departments to help them get this support.

"In terms of the financing of foreign-funded enterprises, we have helped connect with relevant departments, and have already fulfilled the financing needs of foreign companies of over 12.3 billion yuan (US$1.75 billion)," Liu said.

In the next step, the commerce commission, together with the relevant departments and districts, will give guidance to foreign-funded enterprises in the prevention and control of the epidemic, and push them and their upstream and downstream supporting enterprises to resume work and production in an all-round way, Liu said.

"We will also actively help them make use of new measures to provide better services to help tide them over and resume operations as soon as possible," she said.

Since the outbreak of novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, foreign-funded enterprises in the city have taken the initiative against the epidemic, returning to work ahead of schedule to ensure the supply of key epidemic prevention materials and daily necessities, Liu said.

For instance, 3M, DuPont and Owen Halyard reached agreement with the Shanghai Food and Strategic Reserves Administration on storage of epidemic prevention materials, to establish a better emergency reserve mechanism.