Jiangsu’s 50 Measures for Unimpeded Flows in the Economy and Steady and Sustained Economic Growth
Following through the important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping on winning the battle against the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (NCP) and the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, Jiangsu, while making rigorous efforts to prevent and control the epidemic, put in place Several Policies and Measures against the Impact of the NCP and for Unimpeded Flows in the Economy and Steady and Sustained Economic Growth consisting of 50 policies and measures, to ensure unimpeded flows in the economy, bail gravely affected industries and enterprises out of their difficulties, and promote stable, sustained and high-quality development of the economy.
I. Meticulous efforts shall be made for orderly resumption of work and production in various kinds of production enterprises.
Category-specific guidance will be given to different kinds of enterprises in drawing up their own anti-epidemic and work-resumption plans to push production and operation back on track.
1. Full support will be given to local enterprises involved in public utilities (water supply, gas supply, power supply, petrol supply, sanitation, communications, etc.), epidemic prevention and control (production and sales of medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, protective products, etc.), daily necessities (supermarkets, farmers' markets, food production, production and processing of agricultural products, logistics, etc.), and construction of key projects as well as other enterprises related to the national economy and the people’s livelihood, to facilitate their resumption of work and production in an all-round way. Eligible enterprises will be encouraged to overcome difficulties, expand production capacity, adjust structure, increase supply and improve products quality. For engineering construction projects that are delayed because of the epidemic, the contract period for construction is allowed to be reasonably extended.
2. On the basis of strictly implementing prevention and control measures, resumption of work and production will be accelerated in key industrial parks, key export enterprises, key backbone enterprises, key foreign-funded enterprises, and important links in the industrial chain. Examination and approval procedures and the handling time be reduced, and no extra requirements be made. The work on prevention and control of the epidemic will be tightened during production with an improved system for such work in enterprises.
3. Resumption of work in the service industry including culture, tourism, accommodation, and catering will be steered in a regulated and orderly manner according to the developments in epidemic prevention and control.
II. More support will be given with fiscal and taxation policies.
Preferential fiscal and taxation policies will be implemented in traditional service industries and small and medium-sized enterprises heavily affected by the epidemic as well as key enterprises and individuals engaged in epidemic prevention and control tailored to specific conditions.
4. Taxpayers who are unable to make tax declarations on time due to the epidemic shall be allowed to postpone their tax declarations, and taxpayers who do have difficulties and are unable to pay taxes on time shall be allowed to postpone the payment of taxes in accordance with the law for a maximum period of not more than three months. Taxpayers who have suffered major losses as a result of the epidemic and do have difficulties in paying taxes may be exempted from paying the property tax and the urban land use tax in accordance with the law.
5. Such policies as preferential income tax rate and additional tax-deductible R&D costs shall be implemented for high-tech enterprises, which shall be exempted from value-added tax (VAT) out of technology transfer and technology development, and from corporate income tax out of technology transfer. The general taxpayers which produce, wholesale and retail drugs for rare diseases are eligible to pay VAT at a rate of 3% following the simple formula.
6. For producers of epidemic prevention and control supplies, efforts will be made to ensure the excess VAT paid out of their increment shall be fully refunded, priority be given to approving postponement of their tax payment, and temporary exemption of their local fees be implemented in accordance with relevant provisions.
7. Efforts shall be made to put into place the VAT exemption policy on circulation of vegetables and some fresh meat and eggs, and the preferential policies on property tax, urban land use tax, and stamp tax for state commodity reserves as well as on urban land use tax for commodity warehouses.
8. For tourism, accommodation, catering, entertainment, civil aviation, waterway transport, road transport, taxis and other service industries severely affected by the epidemic, prefecture-level municipalities may exempt them from relevant taxes and fees in accordance with the law, and formulate financial discount and other supporting policies.
9. Small and medium-sized enterprises and self-employed businesses that rent state-owned commercial properties may be exempted from paying all or half of the rent of one to three months; those which have difficulties in paying the rent may be granted a grace period. For those which rent commercial properties of other types of ownership, local governments are encouraged to come up with incentives for owners of the properties (landlords) to reduce or exempt the rent.
10. For foreign trade and foreign-funded enterprises seriously affected by the epidemic, governments at various levels shall vigorously adopt supporting policies and measures to resolve their problems related to supply chain and capital chain with coordinated efforts.
11. Efforts shall be made to implement the state’s policies on tax reduction and exemption to support the import of important raw materials, key parts and components, and core equipment. For those epidemic prevention and control supplies in urgent need imported according to the requirements of the provincial leading group for epidemic prevention and control whose prices are still too high even after implementation of the tax reduction and exemption policy, the provincial special funds for business development shall give certain support.
12. Additional loans shall be granted in 2020 to enterprises on the list of national key enterprises for epidemic prevention and control, and vigorous efforts shall be made to win the support from the special concessionary funds for relending of the People’s Bank of China and from the interest subsidies of the budget of the central government. Other enterprises engaged in health and epidemic prevention and control, pharmaceutical products, and medical equipment which play a significant role in preventing and controlling the epidemic will be given a certain amount of interest subsidies after examination and verification.
13. Governments at various levels may subsidize the costs of manufacturers and suppliers of epidemic prevention and control products and daily necessities resulting from their overtime production and operation. The government shall purchase and store all of the medical supplies for epidemic prevention and control manufactured and similar products imported within a certain period of time as required by the state and the province.
14. The provincial loan loss provision for modern service industry shall be brought into full play, beeping up the financing credit for small and medium-sized modern service enterprises across the province, and urging cooperative banks to deliver more loans on credit to the extent of providing credit lines of not less than 10 times and not more than 20 times, and risk losses incurred may be compensated by the reserve as a matter of priority.
15. The provincial special funds for transformation and upgrading of industrial and information technology industries will give priority to and increase support for enterprises that meet the application requirements and are seriously affected by the epidemic. For enterprises that have expanded production capacity or carried out technological transformation out of the needs of epidemic prevention and control, governments at various levels shall give them financial subsidies of a certain proportion for their investment in new equipment. For enterprises which have temporarily transformed to manufacturers of protective supplies from those of clothing and other related products out of the needs of epidemic prevention and control, financial subsidies of a certain proportion shall be granted to compensate for their expenditures in transforming and upgrading plants and purchasing new equipment.
16. Medical staff and workers engaged in epidemic prevention and control shall be exempted from personal income tax for temporary work subsidies and bonuses received in accordance with the standards prescribed by the government. The final settlement of their personal income tax in 2019 shall be suspended during the period of epidemic prevention and control.
III. Financial support will be strengthened.
We will speed up formulation of financial support policies and measures in Jiangsu and prioritize cooperation on government projects with financial institutions that respond positively.
17. We will strengthen the coordination and connection of governments, banks, and enterprises. For enterprises involved in wholesale and retail, accommodation and catering, logistics and transportation, culture and tourism, production and processing of farm produces, and other sectors which are greatly affected by the epidemic, as well as enterprises with development potentials that encounter difficulties temporarily amid the epidemic, especially micro and small businesses and startups, we will renew loans for all eligible ones, do it as fast as we can and launch an online loan renewal mechanism.
18. The new loans granted by banks in Jiangsu shall be no less than that of 2019. The growth rate of inclusive loans for micro and small businesses by large state-owned banks shall be no lower than 20%. We will work hard to ensure that the overall financing cost of inclusive loans to micro and small businesses reduce by about 0.5 percentage point. The special funds for the development of inclusive finance at the provincial level will reward the financial institutions that achieve significant results in implementing the policy of renewing loans without principal repaid.
19. For enterprises that encounter difficulties in pledge of stock rights, securities margin trading, information disclosure, payment of principal and interest of corporate bonds, and other aspects, we will guide them in the application, communication and reporting of deferring and postponing disclosure and in mitigating short-term liquidity risk of corporate bonds.
20. We will support securities firms in exploring new ways of providing financial services to manufacturing enterprises and medical service institutions that are involved in the epidemic prevention and control and ensure the supply of medicine and supplies.
21. We will encourage enterprises with good credit to issue credit enhancement collective bonds to micro and small businesses and guide the issuers in using supporting policies such as the “green channel” and information disclosure.
22. During the epidemic prevention and control, we will make a list of leading enterprises involved in manufacturing, transportation and sales of important medical supplies and daily necessities and grant loans to them with preferential interest rates. Enterprises with development potentials that encounters difficulties in paying back loans due to the epidemic can roll over or renew the debt. Financial institutions are encouraged to reduce or exempt the interest during this period.
23. We will establish a “green channel” in the provincial comprehensive financial service platform, strengthen the financial support for micro, small and medium businesses and private enterprises that are affected by the epidemic, reduce the overall financing cost of enterprises, and enhance the efficiency of financing. We will give a better play to the government procurement credit financing cooperation mechanism. The SMEs that win the bidding can apply for loans from cooperative financial institutions directly with the government procurement contract and have access to preferential interest rates and the green channel without the need to provide any form of guarantee. We encourage all types of guarantee institutions, especially government financing guarantee institutions, to provide financing and guarantee services to micro, small and medium businesses and new-type agricultural entities that face temporary difficulties amid the epidemic, and further reduce the rate of guarantee fee. The guarantee fee will be subsidized by financial departments.
24. We will give full play to policy-based finance, encourage and support policy-based financial institutions to adopt supporting policies to provide targeted services for export enterprises. We will enhance financial support for the import of epidemic control supplies and encourage enterprises to use insurance products such as advance payment for imports to ensure the security of overseas procurement funds. We will implement the “one enterprise, one policy” service for foreign trade enterprises that have been severely affected by the epidemic, increase the credit limit fill rate and risk tolerance, and speed up claim settlement and recovery for export credit insurance cases to ensure that enterprises get due compensation under the insurance plan and effectively reduce loss.
IV. Efforts will be increased to aid production and stabilize employment.
25. We will help and support enterprises that are indispensable for epidemic prevention and control, urban life and people’s livelihood, especially the producers of epidemic control supplies, to recruit workers, use the online job recruitment service platform, establish an employment response mechanism for migrant workers who have been confined in their hometown by the epidemic, make full use of local labor resources, and balance the supply and demand. We will ensure that employees of key enterprises resume work in time in an orderly manner, expand the employment of enterprises through multiple channels in broader fields, and stabilize employment as a whole.
26. We will further implement the policy to refund unemployment insurance premium paid by employers and employees and extend the implementation period of the policy to December 31, 2020 for the insured enterprises that encounter temporary difficulties in operation and production but are expected to resume. The layoff rate of enterprises enjoying the policy of insurance premium refund shall be kept under the surveyed unemployment rate in urban areas in the previous year. For enterprises with 30 or fewer employees, the layoff rate shall be relaxed to the extent of no higher than 20% of the total number of employees. Enterprises of service industry that have been hit by the epidemic with no or few layoffs will get 1-3 months of unemployment insurance refund as subsidy according to the subsidy standards for enterprises with difficulties. We will give full play to the provincial adjustment funds, so as to allow all eligible enterprises to enjoy the policy.
27. We will reduce unemployment insurance rate and work injury insurance rate in stages and extend the implementation period to April 30, 2021. Prefecture-level municipalities whose medical insurance fund balances are sufficient enough to pay benefits for more than 15 months are allowed to gradually reduce medical insurance rate by 0.5-1 percentage point within this year and maintain the current individual contribution rate.
28. During the epidemic prevention and control period, enterprises are allowed to apply for deferred registration of employee insurance and payment of endowment insurance, medical insurance, unemployment insurance, employment injury insurance, maternity insurance, housing provident fund, and other fees. Eligible enterprises that fail to pay social insurance premiums for the moment due to production and operation difficulties amid the epidemic will be recognized within 5 working days after submitting the application to local authorities. Eligible enterprises that fail to pay the housing provident fund for the moment will be recognized within 5 working days after submitting the application to local authorities. These eligible enterprises can defer the payment of endowment insurance, unemployment insurance, work injury insurance premiums and housing provident fund for a maximum of 6 months. No late-payment charges will be levied and the corporate or personnel credit record will not be affected.
29. We will allow enterprises with unbalanced production tasks due to the epidemic to adopt a comprehensive working hours system according to law based on their production and operation needs. We will increase support for producers of epidemic control supplies. For enterprises that produced and distributed supplies urgently needed for epidemic prevention and control during the Spring Festival (January 24-February 9, 2020) and were recognized by the province, we will grant a one-time employment subsidy of RMB 100 per on-the-job employe per day from the funds of unemployment insurance extension pilot program or employment subsidy funds.
30. We will encourage and support vocational skills training for enterprise employees and key employment groups.
31. Before the first-level public health emergency response is lifted across the province, enterprises that have not implemented effective measures for epidemic control and prevention shall not carry out recruitment activities in severely affected areas, recruit employees from or arrange business trips to these areas.
V. The supply chain will be improved to ensure the supply of daily necessities.
32. We will implement the governor responsibility system for the “rice bag” and the mayor responsibility system for the “vegetable basket” to balance supply and demand and ensure that the market will not be out of stock. We will properly solve problems such as shortage of feed for farmers, shortage of seedlings, lack of market for butchery. We will ensure smooth distribution in the wholesale market and urban areas, timely replenishment of shopping malls, supermarkets, and convenience stores, and strengthen price monitoring and supervision of product quality and safety.
33. Focusing on epidemic prevention and control, public service operation, people’s livelihood, and production of important enterprises, we will set up a transportation-priority mechanism in the Yangtze River Delta region that connects different cities and ports to facilitate exchange of producer goods and daily necessities. We will help coordinate the resumption of work and production of upstream and downstream enterprises, and strengthen cross-regional coordination and transportation capacity deployment.
34. We will better coordination of highway, railway, airway and waterway intermodal transport, ensure no congestion in any leg of the course and see to it that relevant conveyances will not be intercepted on the grounds of epidemic control, so as to improve the efficiency of logistics and output.
VI. Temporary preferential policies on electricity prices will be put in place.
35. During the epidemic outbreak, enterprises, in line with the circumstances, could pay their basic electricity bills in the way they opt for on a monthly basis. Power-consuming enterprises will be entitled to reduction or exemption of the basic electricity charges according to the days of suspension, and also be facilitated in deferring or newly applying for suspension.
36. For any power-consuming enterprise that need to expand production capacity due to the epidemic control, if it chooses to pay its basic electricity bill according to the maximal needed amount as prescribed in the contract and the actual amount exceeds that amount by 105%, the excessive part will be charged faithfully without doubling the basic electricity bill. Medical or other relevant establishments directly involved in the epidemic control efforts will be exempt from high reliability power supply fees if they have to consume extra power in new buildings or expansion projects.
VII. We will step up key projects construction.
37. Effective investments will be enhanced with priority given to the construction of 220 provincial key projects. We will work to ensure early construction, completion and outcomes to be delivered with the full-fledged ones and see to the accelerated implementation of the 1,473 key industrial projects inaugurated in the beginning of the year. We will fast-track moves in delivering key projects that concern epidemic control and public health.
38. Private investment will be vigorously encouraged and promoted, especially that in industrial development and infrastructure including transportation. Government investment will be better leveraged and key areas and weak links will be focused on with continuous efforts made in scaling up investment in infrastructure and areas concerning the public well-being where weaknesses need to be fixed, including public health, ecological and environmental protection, emergency response, living environment amelioration and housing conditions improvement for farmers in northern Jiangsu. Construction of 200 projects of 10 categories aimed at fixing the weaknesses in people’s livelihood will be initiated as soon as possible.
39. Construction projects of contingency medical facilities and isolation facilities that are badly needed for epidemic control and meet the requirement of Article 66 of the Law on Tendering and Bidding may be purchased by the proprietor either through open tender, when relevant time spans will be shortened as appropriate to facilitate the process, or not. A “Green Channel” service mechanism in tendering and bidding will be put in place for projects that are vital to urban functions, epidemic prevention and control, implementation of state policies, people’s livelihood and enterprise production and operation.
VIII. Scientific research and epidemic control efforts will be synergized.
40. More needs to be done to promote synergy between scientific research and epidemic control efforts with respect to the medicines, vaccines, accelerated test, medical instruments and protective supplies. Preferential policies will be introduced to support the R&D of testing reagents, effective drugs and vaccines, as well as their clinical application and production.
41. Enterprises engaged in the R&D and mass production of the coronavirus testing reagents, vaccines and treating equipment are entitled to a fixed-sum subsidy granted by the provincial special fund for the development of strategic emerging industries.
42. During the epidemic outbreak, technology incubators at or above the provincial level and university science parks that cut or exempt the rent of sci-tech SMEs being incubated will be given preferential support in fund allocation if put on the list of the provincial annual performance rewards and grants. Municipalities across the province may, in reference to that, formulate corresponding methods on subsidizing municipal entrepreneurship incubation bases and the operation of parks. Processing procedures for such loans as the Suke Loan (a special fund loan for Jiangsu technological results transfer risk compensation), Suwei Loan (a loan targeted at micro, small and medium-sized enterprises) and Sumao Loan (a loan targeted at foreign trade SMEs) will be upgraded and on-line services will be made available as soon as possible to shorten the filing period.
IX. Economic operation monitoring and adjustment will be intensified.
43. We will quicken steps in introducing the implementation guidance on macro-control innovation and improvement, keep a close eye on the impact of the epidemic on the industry, service sector, investment, consumption, employment and other fields, pro-actively carry out counter-cyclic regulations and timely adjust or refine policies in light of latest developments.
44. We will deepen supply-side structural reform and give into better play the role of market mechanism to drive industrial transformation and upgrading. Policies and measures will be laid down after prudent researches to stimulate the revival of traditional consumption modes. A healthy lifestyle and healthier habits will be further championed among residents.
X. Risks or hidden dangers that may arise out of the epidemic outbreak will be forestalled.
45. We will closely follow the trend of the real estate market with more efforts invested in stabilizing land and housing prices and expectations to maintain a healthy and sound housing market.
46. We will pay close attention to the capital chains of listed companies and large enterprises, strengthen monitoring and early warning as well as preventive guidance, and forestall regional and systemic financial risks.
XI. Workplace safety will be intensified.
47. We will coordinate epidemic control efforts with steps to promote workplace safety. Workplace safety, as a bottom line, red line and life line for us, must be resolutely ensured. Enterprises that resume production will be urged to make proper production plans while those not ready with hidden security risks and absence of personnel in key posts are not allowed to resume production.
XII. Efforts will be made to create a pro-business environment and maintain order.
48. More on-line services saving the need of contact will be introduced to prevent the risk of virus infection between crowds or gatherings. Remote reviews and approvals will be available for investment projects, with services covering the entire process from project approval, initiation to operation.
49. We will promote trade facilitation and enhance connection and coordination with Shanghai Customs or peer customs to propel integration of risk prevention and control, logistics supervision, inspections, customs control and bonded zone supervision. Airports will realize customs clearances procedures integration. The single-window system for international trade, which works in synergy with ports, airports and railways, will be encouraged. These practices will be extended to more areas to shorten the overall clearance time.
50. Illegal acts that undermine epidemic prevention and control will be dealt with to the full extent of the law. No region, enterprise or individual is allowed to loot or retain important supplies for epidemic control. Such acts, once identified, will be severely punished according to the law, regulations and disciplines. Illegal criminal acts including production and sales of fake and shoddy goods, medical instruments and medical sanitation materials, and the malicious acts of price gouging and hoarding which disturbs the market order will be strictly cracked down on.
This document is effective from the date of issue and valid until the end of 2020. (Specific measures in the document, if stipulated in details, shall be implemented accordingly. Should some policies and measures prove unnecessary because of the end of the emergence response to the coronavirus epidemic, they naturally become invalid.)
Source: The Jiangsu Municipal Foreign Affairs Office
