Beijing provides vital support to businesses affected by COVID-19 setbacks

Beijing will resolutely continue the dynamic zero-COVID approach, and promote the resumption of work and production in a steady and orderly way, local officials said.

It strives to break through key obstacles in recovering industrial production and stabilize industrial and supply chains in key sectors.

"The city has called for cooperation among multiple government departments to solve enterprises' practical difficulties such as human resources and logistics caused by pandemic prevention and control," said a spokesperson for the Beijing Commission of Development and Reform.

Many businesses have benefited from the initiative, including Chinese technology company and consumer electronics maker Xiaomi headquartered in the city.

A few days before the launch of a new Xiaomi smartphone, a large truck loaded with the new products manufactured at a factory in southern China was stopped at a highway checkpoint in Hebei province's Sanhe city, neighboring Beijing, due to the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

"We do not have much time. These phones need to be sold immediately after the launch ceremony," said Wang Xiang, president of Xiaomi.

Helped by a Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordination office and several related departments, this batch of Xiaomi phones arrived in Beijing within a day with comprehensive disinfection and sterilization.

Amid the ongoing pandemic, the number of online orders for daily materials from Chinese e-commerce giant JD has shot up, but cross-regional transportation was blocked in some of the company's warehouses.

These warehouses are set up for the supply of daily necessities to many provinces and cities in northern China, according to JD.

After the company reported the difficulties, relevant government departments in Beijing have resorted to many approaches like the establishment of green channels to ensure smooth logistics.

"The goods that people often buy have been stocked three to five times more than usual in warehouses in Beijing and neighboring cities," said a spokesman for the company. Smooth logistics also guarantee the stable prices of daily necessities, he added.

With the help of the Beijing Commerce Bureau, JD has formed a pandemic prevention and emergency-response mechanism covering all links of logistics from warehousing and sorting to transportation and distribution.

HuaChuang Electric Vehicle Technology, a company in cooperation with Beijing Institute of Technology, has adopted a closed-loop management model featuring 70 staff members as a minimum production unit in its factory in the city's Shunyi district during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vehicles loaded with raw materials and finished products have also entered and exited the company through a closed-loop system to ensure the normal delivery of products.

The auto parts company serves many vehicle manufacturers across the country. It is also the only supplier of the electronic control and drive system of Beiqi Foton's new energy negative-pressure ambulances.

According to the Beijing Development and Reform Commission, the city will guide more enterprises to formulate closed-loop management plans and optimize the production process with a minimum business unit, so as to improve their ability to cope with the impact of the pandemic.

Moreover, Beijing has released other measures covering tax rebates, rent reductions and financial subsidies to help enterprises through the financial difficulties caused by the latest COVID-19 outbreak.

In Fangshan district, for example, an industrial park for small and micro businesses managed to exempt 80 companies from rental fees during the pandemic. In Xicheng district, tax authorities provide "one-to-one" guidance to enterprises that meet the tax refund requirements.

As of June, Beijing has refunded more than 50 billion yuan ($7.49 billion) of taxes to enterprises, 94.7 percent of which are small and micro businesses. Also, State-owned companies reduced and exempted rental fees of about 5.8 billion yuan for nearly 40,000 small and micro businesses.