Xiamen continues on strong path, despite virus outbreak

Coastal city in Fujian provine has seen quick economic and social recovery

Xiamen in Fujian province has maintained a fast-paced recovery of its economic and social development thanks to the city's key measures to prevent and control the COVID-19 epidemic over the past months.

From January to June, Xiamen achieved a total GDP of some 294.82 billion yuan ($42.49 billion).

The city also realized a positive change from negative to a year-on-year increase of 0.6 percent.

The resumption rate of projects under construction and industrial enterprises in Xiamen has reached 100 percent, and 57,000 new tax registrants have been registered, 1.4 times that of the same period last year.

To deal with the epidemic while boosting economic growth, local governments in Xiamen have launched a series of 200 measures to help enterprises in financing some 200 billion yuan and reducing the financial burden of 20 billion yuan for enterprises in need. The measures strongly support the sustainable development of market entities.

The market supervision bureau of Tong'an district in Xiamen launched an internet plus government service platform during the pandemic so that the enterprises can do business without delay at home.

"On one hand, we will improve efficiency for enterprises to open up offices online," a staffer at the bureau said. "On the other hand, we will make better use of the internet to deal with administrative approvals."

The bureau has also added six hotlines during special periods to answer questions from the public. It opened up a special channel for the registration of enterprises in production of anti-epidemic materials and major investment projects.

To improve the efficiency of licensing approvals, the bureau of Tong'an has also provided innovative services such as the one window for one window.

The time for the acceptance and approval of the enterprises' establishment has been reduced to 3.5 hours.

A total of 3,115 commercial entities received business licenses through the online office in the first half of the year.

The resumption of work and production in various industries in Xiamen, has also made demand for licensed special equipment operators increase.

Special equipment operators refer to the operators of boilers, pressure vessels, pipelines, elevators, hoisting machinery, large amusement facilities, special motor vehicles in the field and their related management personnel.

To solve the urgent need for the commission of enterprises while supporting the smooth return of operators, Xiamen's special equipment inspection and testing institute has improved the equipment operator examination system, optimized the work process and standardized information management.

The institute has deepened the pre-examination service by adjusting the frequency of evidence collection, dispatching examiners in time, and increasing the number of supervisory examination venues to deepen the pre-examination services. The Xiamen government has also insisted on improving people's livelihood and welfare.

The urban registered unemployment rate has been controlled within the annual expected range for the first half of the year. More than 100,000 enterprises were granted stable job subsidies and some 490 million yuan were returned to stable jobs.

The number of registered enterprises and the number of employees in the city increased by 36.3 percent and 11.7 percent.

Xiamen also provided important daily necessities to the market and took multiple measures to ensure sufficient supply, stable prices and solid reserves.

The consumer price index dropped by 1.1 percent from the first quarter, as policies for vegetable parity and government subsidies for the sale of pork were implemented.

Despite the adverse conditions of the pandemic, Xiamen has achieved remarkable investment. In the first half of the year, the cumulative actual use of foreign capital increased by 41.6 percent, ranking first in the province in terms of growth and scale.

Foreign trade increased by 3.9 percent, with the growth rate ranking first among the cities separately listed in the plan, and the monthly growth rate was better than that of the entire country.

In the first half of the year, the city's agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery increased by 2.1 percent over the same period of the previous year, the main products maintained growth, and the agricultural output value increased by 4.9 percent.

In the next three years, 252 projects with a total investment of more than 100 million yuan will be sorted out, with a planned total investment of 729 billion yuan, and the first batch of 30 major projects with a total investment of 226.9 billion yuan will be planned.

Environmental protection is also progressing steadily. Xiamen's air quality ranks sixth among the 168 key cities in the country. The city's drinking water source water quality compliance rate and other indicators have achieved 100 percent, reaching the best level in the past.