By: Azhar Azam
*This is one of my opinion pieces (unedited) that first appeared at "China Global Television Network (CGTN)":
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-03-23/China-emerges-from-health-crisis-to-fast-track-economic-growth-P6b5c6SJ6E/index.html
After there was no locally transmitted case of Covid-19 for a third consecutive day in China, it is a time not to unwind but to man up and revive the second largest economy of the world that has been hammered by the deadly germ known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
Chinese government already stepped up its efforts to support jobs by fast-tracking targeted tax and fee cuts for the firms, reimbursing more unemployment insurance premiums to domestic companies that save jobs and subsidizing small organizations to hire college graduates on contract for longer than a year.
The ambitious fiscal measures coupled with slashing the operational costs and resumption of activities at key firms and projects – especially in manufacturing, construction, logistics, and public services – would resolve the critical understaffing issue and hold the key to give a stimulus to the country’s economy.
Local governments actions – to help top 9,138 manufacturers recruit 370,000 workers and arrange chartered trains, buses and flights to bring more than 4.1 million migrant workers back to work – would surely ease labor shortages and more importantly, lubricate the Chinese economic wheel to whirl at a rapid pace and reduce the people’s financial stress.
About 100 million migrant workers have so far come back to work after being staved off by the Covid-19 for more than two and a half months. The arrival of nearly 80% of the returnees to their hometown, ahead of the Spring Festival, is the reflection that echoed production is resuming and gaining momentum in the country.
Since the economic reforms, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) – estimated at over 38 million in 2019 – have been one of the major driving forces to the China’s national economy. Beijing’s special focus on small businesses, which would save these businesses up to 500 billion yuan through June – should bolster them and assist their government to streamline the state’s economy.
These far-reaching and production-friendly policies will considerably alleviate the pecuniary burdens on the manufacturing companies and would help to hack the unemployment rate that cruised to 6.2% in February. However, it shouldn’t be ignored that amid health crisis phase, Beijing still managed to create 1.08 million new urban jobs in the first two months of 2020.
While the global financial behemoths such as BlackRock and JPMorgan are ramping up their investments in China’s financial hub of Shanghai, the return of international basketball players including Jeremy Lin from the US is also the rising trust on Chinese well-fought victory against the Covid-19.
Other than a few US mouthpieces who characterized that the coronavirus outbreak had stoked an intense blow to the country’s economy, Chinese effort to snuff out the pandemic and blunt the Covid-19 largely drew applause from the top global health and economic regulator, the World Health Organization (WHO) and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
On Friday, the WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom again clapped Chinese success to controlling the outbreak in the hardest-hit Wuhan that was the proof the disease was not insurmountable. His urge – to tow inspiration from China’s fight against coronavirus that “provides hope for the rest of the world that even the most serious situation can be turned around” – should obliterate any leftover doubts about Beijing’s overriding control over disease.
Showing concerns on the serious global economic implications of the pandemic, the IMF officials lauded Beijing on March 20 stating China’s experience shows “the right policies make a difference in fighting the disease and mitigating its impacts.” Though they also cautioned about some risks but their comments “reassuring signs of economic normalization” in the country was a rich belief on Chinese quick monetary actions.
Right from the onset of the 2020 following a sudden outbreak, China had to make a hard choice either to deploy its resources in protecting the health, life and economic survival of the people or prevent the economy from a hard landing. The government rightly prioritized the former without ignoring the latter through an innovative mix of planned tactics to support vulnerable households and smaller firms by waiving social security fees, utility bills and channeling credit via fintechs.
The nonpareil and novel blend of state’s social and economic measures – through arrangement of subsidized credit to scale up the production of healthcare equipment and other critical activities – China not only neutralized the dire Covid-19 challenge but also shielded its economy from significant disruption.
As the disease is almost wiped out from the country, the massive Beijing-built healthcare production structure isn’t standing idly by instead unleashes a silver lining for its economy. The more wired China capability in manufacturing medical diagnostic apparatus and accessories including masks and other personal protective goods can be redirected to meet growing domestic and international market demand that is encountering a famine of diagnostic items.
From now onwards, China will be more prepared to confront any potential danger of the epidemic emergence with a futuristic approach. As the Covid-19 jolts the Europe and North America and threatens to infiltrate in the other regions, Beijing is playing an assertive role as well in guarding the world from pandemic by extending its expertise and providing medical supplies to the struggling government.
So, a strong China is in the interest of world since it always called on social and economic cooperation to settle differences and resolve disputes. By clobbering the Covid-19 and taking sweeping fiscal measures at home, Beijing has laid the foundation for its own and global economic revival and showed the way how a country can emerge from crisis and get back on the path of development through a resolute will and robust risk management.
*This is one of my opinion pieces (unedited) that first appeared at "China Global Television Network (CGTN)":
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-03-23/China-emerges-from-health-crisis-to-fast-track-economic-growth-P6b5c6SJ6E/index.html
After there was no locally transmitted case of Covid-19 for a third consecutive day in China, it is a time not to unwind but to man up and revive the second largest economy of the world that has been hammered by the deadly germ known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
Chinese government already stepped up its efforts to support jobs by fast-tracking targeted tax and fee cuts for the firms, reimbursing more unemployment insurance premiums to domestic companies that save jobs and subsidizing small organizations to hire college graduates on contract for longer than a year.
The ambitious fiscal measures coupled with slashing the operational costs and resumption of activities at key firms and projects – especially in manufacturing, construction, logistics, and public services – would resolve the critical understaffing issue and hold the key to give a stimulus to the country’s economy.
Local governments actions – to help top 9,138 manufacturers recruit 370,000 workers and arrange chartered trains, buses and flights to bring more than 4.1 million migrant workers back to work – would surely ease labor shortages and more importantly, lubricate the Chinese economic wheel to whirl at a rapid pace and reduce the people’s financial stress.
About 100 million migrant workers have so far come back to work after being staved off by the Covid-19 for more than two and a half months. The arrival of nearly 80% of the returnees to their hometown, ahead of the Spring Festival, is the reflection that echoed production is resuming and gaining momentum in the country.
Since the economic reforms, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) – estimated at over 38 million in 2019 – have been one of the major driving forces to the China’s national economy. Beijing’s special focus on small businesses, which would save these businesses up to 500 billion yuan through June – should bolster them and assist their government to streamline the state’s economy.
These far-reaching and production-friendly policies will considerably alleviate the pecuniary burdens on the manufacturing companies and would help to hack the unemployment rate that cruised to 6.2% in February. However, it shouldn’t be ignored that amid health crisis phase, Beijing still managed to create 1.08 million new urban jobs in the first two months of 2020.
While the global financial behemoths such as BlackRock and JPMorgan are ramping up their investments in China’s financial hub of Shanghai, the return of international basketball players including Jeremy Lin from the US is also the rising trust on Chinese well-fought victory against the Covid-19.
Other than a few US mouthpieces who characterized that the coronavirus outbreak had stoked an intense blow to the country’s economy, Chinese effort to snuff out the pandemic and blunt the Covid-19 largely drew applause from the top global health and economic regulator, the World Health Organization (WHO) and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
On Friday, the WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom again clapped Chinese success to controlling the outbreak in the hardest-hit Wuhan that was the proof the disease was not insurmountable. His urge – to tow inspiration from China’s fight against coronavirus that “provides hope for the rest of the world that even the most serious situation can be turned around” – should obliterate any leftover doubts about Beijing’s overriding control over disease.
Showing concerns on the serious global economic implications of the pandemic, the IMF officials lauded Beijing on March 20 stating China’s experience shows “the right policies make a difference in fighting the disease and mitigating its impacts.” Though they also cautioned about some risks but their comments “reassuring signs of economic normalization” in the country was a rich belief on Chinese quick monetary actions.
Right from the onset of the 2020 following a sudden outbreak, China had to make a hard choice either to deploy its resources in protecting the health, life and economic survival of the people or prevent the economy from a hard landing. The government rightly prioritized the former without ignoring the latter through an innovative mix of planned tactics to support vulnerable households and smaller firms by waiving social security fees, utility bills and channeling credit via fintechs.
The nonpareil and novel blend of state’s social and economic measures – through arrangement of subsidized credit to scale up the production of healthcare equipment and other critical activities – China not only neutralized the dire Covid-19 challenge but also shielded its economy from significant disruption.
As the disease is almost wiped out from the country, the massive Beijing-built healthcare production structure isn’t standing idly by instead unleashes a silver lining for its economy. The more wired China capability in manufacturing medical diagnostic apparatus and accessories including masks and other personal protective goods can be redirected to meet growing domestic and international market demand that is encountering a famine of diagnostic items.
From now onwards, China will be more prepared to confront any potential danger of the epidemic emergence with a futuristic approach. As the Covid-19 jolts the Europe and North America and threatens to infiltrate in the other regions, Beijing is playing an assertive role as well in guarding the world from pandemic by extending its expertise and providing medical supplies to the struggling government.
So, a strong China is in the interest of world since it always called on social and economic cooperation to settle differences and resolve disputes. By clobbering the Covid-19 and taking sweeping fiscal measures at home, Beijing has laid the foundation for its own and global economic revival and showed the way how a country can emerge from crisis and get back on the path of development through a resolute will and robust risk management.