Bruce Aylward, head of the WHO-China Joint Mission on COVID-19's foreign expert panel, holds up a chart showing the results of China's epidemic control efforts at a news conference in Beijing on Monday. (WANG ZHUANGFEI / CHINA DAILY)
China has taken multiple measures to hasten the resumption of industrial production, even as it makes all-out efforts to combat the novel coronavirus outbreak.
As the "world's factory" and "world's market", China's efforts to bring its industrial production and commercial activities back on track will not only strengthen international confidence in China's economy, but also inject hope and momentum into the global economy. The central government recently worked out policy combinations－such as cutting taxes for enterprises, increasing fiscal expenditure, injecting liquidity into the financial system and reducing administrative examination and approval procedures－to help enterprises battle labor and raw material shortages and insufficient funds as they resume work.
With the exception of Hubei province, whose capital Wuhan is the epicenter of the outbreak, other provinces have resumed production.
China is the world's second-largest economy with a GDP of nearly 100 trillion yuan ($14.2 trillion).With a huge domestic market of 1.4 billion people, a labor force of nearly 900 million and sufficient high-quality human resources, China's economy still enjoys strong resilience and a large space for maneuvering, and its upward trend has not changed.
The active efforts to promote resumption of work and production, and the government's determination to stabilize employment, finance, foreign trade and investment will help enterprises regain confidence in the long-term and sound development of the Chinese economy.
Honeywell, a leading U.S. manufacturer, recently resumed full production at 18 of its 21 plants, with another three partially restored. Tesla has also started efforts to resume production. Ford Motor has said China's still-robust market demand gives it confidence. China's steady resumption of production will reactivate the global industrial chain and reassure international manufacturing companies.
In the era of economic globalization, the Chinese economy is deeply integrated with the world economy, and the challenges for both are the same. Be it the prevention and control of the epidemic or the recovery of economic production, all countries need to strengthen cooperation with China and help each other in these difficult times.
