Economic Daily: 

The epidemic has had great impact on global supply chains and industrial chains, and some countries have accelerated the withdrawal of their enterprises. My question, therefore, is: what challenges might be imposed on China's supply chain and industrial chain? How can we further upgrade the supply and industrial chains while ensuring their stability and competitiveness? Thank you.

Cong Liang:

Thanks for your questions. As you mentioned, the sudden outbreak has had great impact on China's economic and social development. Under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, regions and departments together have rolled out 90 targeted and powerful policies and measures covering eight aspects, including alleviating the difficulties facing enterprises, smoothing circulation of the supply chain, working in a synergistic way to achieve full resumption of production, and accelerations in the resumption of work on major projects. As things stand, the measures have taken effect as the enterprises resumed work so that production has been enabled to gradually approach or has reached the normal level. The statistics on electric power production is the most telling. According to statistics, this contracted by 4.6% in March year-on-year, and then increased by 0.3% in April year-on-year. The latest figures show that energy production in the first 20 days of May increased by 5.2% year-on-year, and was a gain of nearly 10 percentage points compared to March.

At the same time, however, the outbreak has continued to spread overseas, and this has severely hindered global economic and trade activities, interrupted global industrial and supply chains and increased uncertainty and instability. Our country has become deeply integrated with global industrial chains, so, inevitably, it has been impacted and influenced. It's necessary to spare no effort to ensure the stability of both the industrial and supply chains, which is one important part of the work of maintaining security in six areas as well.

At the same time, while consolidating and expanding the anti-virus achievements, the National Development and Reform Commission intends to further implement the details of the established policies, go all out to maintain the stability of all industrial and supply chains and constantly improve their competitiveness.

We have to ensure that all the various chains involved can circulate in an unimpeded way, by further alleviating the difficulties faced by enterprises and implementing the established policies on fiscal taxation, finance, social security, labor and rentals. These policies have already been introduced and are to be retained until the end of the year. The key is fully implementing the policies to help enterprises, especially these micro, small, and medium-sized ones to stabilize production and overcome any hardships they face. We should focus on getting through any bottlenecks and overcoming barriers appeared in the major industrial chains and significant investment programs, strengthening the key support elements for leading enterprises, synergistically promoting holistic work resumption in regard to upstream-downstream industries, production, sales and supplies as well as large, medium and small enterprises. Although some large enterprises have resumed production, the lockdown of some small enterprises can impact the circulation involving the whole industrial chains. Only by achieving synergy among large, medium and small enterprises can we achieve a full resumption of work and production. At the same time, we should optimize the supply chain system, coordinating domestic and overseas logistic resources to guarantee there are no blockages in railways, civil aviation and sea transportation. 

We also should make efforts to improve the various industrial and supply chains. It requires us to consolidate the advantages of traditional industries, strengthen the leading role of competitive industries, and support enterprises to upgrade their technologies and overcome bottlenecks. It also demands us to improve weak links and increase the resilience of industrial chains. We should also focus on advancing the development of industrial bases and modernizing industrial chains. Meanwhile, we should promote the digitalization, encourage enterprises to accelerate this aspect in their supply chains and improve flexibility and collaborative capacity. Additionally, we should launch pilot projects deeply integrating an advanced manufacturing industry and a modern service industry, striving to develop new industries, new business forms and new patterns, and fostering and expanding new growth points and poles.

Lastly, I would like to emphasize that ensuring the stability of global industrial chains and supply chains cannot be done by one country. The international community needs to enhance cross-border cooperation, jointly confront the challenges, contain the virus as soon as possible, push forward the return of industrial development back onto the normal track and promote dynamic circulation and healthy development of economic and social systems. Thank you.