Certain enterprises and businesses to be exempt from rent for three months

Small and micro-sized enterprises in the services sector and individual businesses that rent properties from China's State-owned enterprises will be exempted from rent for three months across the country in 2022, said the country's top State-asset regulator.

As small and medium-sized enterprises play a key role in supporting the market, promoting employment and maintaining economic stability, the government and SOEs will offer supportive measures such as preferential electricity price for businesses in the areas of catering, retail, tourism, civil aviation, road, water and railway transportation, in order to minimize the impact caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a circular issued by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) on Wednesday.

The SOEs will accelerate the integration and application of innovative technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, industrial internet, internet of things, big data and blockchain with real economy and support the digital transformation of SMEs, said the SASAC document.

The circular said that government and SOEs will actively expand effective investment, and accelerate the developing pace of a number of major projects related to China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) to create a more physical workload and new businesses as soon as possible.

It will generate more business orders in both upstream and downstream areas in advance, and stabilize the expectations of SMEs, said the SASAC.