Supporting Businesses, Safeguarding People’s Livelihoods, and Stabilizing Investment!In accordance with the State Council’s “Comprehensive Policy Measures to Solidly Stabilize the Economy” and the “Guangdong Province Implementation Plan for Carrying Out the State Council’s <Comprehensive Policy Measures to Solidly Stabilize the Economy>,” our city has systematically reviewed and refined implementation measures item by item, formulating a total of 133 specific measures across six areas. These include fiscal policies, monetary and financial policies, measures to stabilize investment and promote consumption, policies to ensure food and energy security, policies to maintain the stability of industrial and supply chains, and policies to safeguard basic public welfare.
Reporters have learned that the process from the provincial implementation plan to the municipal implementation policies took only 10 days. This effort incorporated a series of valuable experiences from Zhaoqing’s efforts to stabilize growth and promote development over the past two years, striving to provide maximum relief to various social entities, work together to maintain stability, and apply targeted efforts to promote development.
Fiscal Policies (28 Measures): Tax Refunds and Fee Reductions Must Be Both Swift and Precise
These primarily include strictly implementing national and provincial policies on VAT carryforward refunds and social insurance premium deferrals; increasing government procurement support for small and medium-sized enterprises; accelerating the pace of fiscal spending and the issuance and utilization of local government special bonds; and improving the efficiency of fiscal fund utilization.
Regarding the implementation of policies on VAT carryforward refunds and social insurance premium deferrals, strong measures will be taken to accelerate the processing of VAT carryforward refunds for the six major industries, including manufacturing, that have already been announced. Based on voluntary applications from taxpayers, accumulated VAT carryforward refunds for micro and small enterprises will be refunded in a centralized manner by June 30.Eligible medium-sized and large enterprises in the manufacturing and other sectors may apply to the competent tax authorities for a one-time refund of accumulated VAT carryovers starting from the tax filing periods in May and June of this year, respectively.We will strictly implement the expanded VAT refund policy for seven sectors, including wholesale and retail. Eligible enterprises in these sectors may apply to the competent tax authorities for refunds of incremental VAT carryovers and one-time refunds of accumulated VAT carryovers starting from the tax filing period in July of this year.
In addition, the scope and duration of deferrals for three social insurance contributions will be further expanded. Deferrals will be implemented for 22 severely affected industries, as well as all eligible small, medium, and micro enterprises and individually owned businesses participating in social insurance through employer-sponsored plans, with the application process simplified. At the same time, social insurance contribution subsidies will be provided to eligible small and micro manufacturing enterprises, to be used for expenses such as social insurance payments and employee benefits.
The aforementioned policies will directly provide cash flow to market entities, effectively alleviating the financial pressure on struggling enterprises, and play a positive role in helping market entities overcome difficulties and boosting their confidence in development. By increasing government procurement support for small and medium-sized enterprises, we will promote their healthy development.
This year, our city has increased the reserved share of government procurement for SMEs from over 30% to over 40%, with the portion reserved for micro and small enterprises raised from no less than 60% to no less than 70%. Furthermore, procurement entities and procurement agencies are required to increase the price deduction ratio for micro and small enterprises during the evaluation of procurement projects or packages that do not have a reserved share, from 6%–10% to 10%–20%.At the same time, to ensure timely payment to SMEs, our city requires budgetary units to complete fund disbursements within 15 days of receiving invoices for contracts that meet the agreed payment conditions. Additionally, we will accelerate the issuance and utilization of local government special bonds, ensuring they are fully utilized by the end of August to effectively leverage the role of bonds in stabilizing growth and promoting investment.
20 Monetary and Financial Policies: Further Reducing Financial Costs to Directly Benefit Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises
Strictly implement national and provincial policies on financial support for enterprises and relief measures, including guiding financial institutions and local financial organizations within the jurisdiction to assist citizens and enterprises by implementing measures such as deferring loan repayments, extending loan terms, and postponing principal and interest payments for individuals and market entities affected by the pandemic;Make full use of national re-lending facilities for small businesses and agriculture, as well as special re-lending facilities for transportation and logistics, technological innovation, and other sectors, along with inclusive lending support tools for small and micro enterprises, to guide financial institutions in vigorously supporting small and micro enterprises and businesses in industries facing difficulties due to the pandemic; implement the provincial policy on loan interest subsidies for “first-time borrowers,” providing interest subsidies of no more than 1% to small and micro enterprises that applied for their first loan from local legal-person financial institutions between April 1 and June 30 of this year;Support and encourage the city’s two government-backed financing guarantee institutions to actively seek provincial policy subsidy funds [for government-backed financing guarantee institutions, a subsidy of 1% of the transaction amount will be provided for new SME financing guarantee business in 2022 involving individual guarantees of less than 10 million yuan and an average annualized guarantee fee rate not exceeding (including) 1%], thereby further strengthening financing guarantee services for SMEs;Encourage supply chain financing. For eligible core enterprises in supply chains that assist SMEs in securing accounts receivable financing, rewards will be granted at a rate not exceeding 1% of the annualized amount of accounts receivable financing realized, subject to online verification through the China Credit Information Service’s Accounts Receivable Financing Service Platform.
At the same time, in light of our city’s actual conditions, to facilitate bank-enterprise matching, we will organize the competent authorities of all counties (cities, districts) and sectors severely affected by the pandemic—such as accommodation and catering, wholesale and retail, cultural tourism, and transportation—to compile lists of enterprises in need of relief and promptly share them with banking institutions for targeted matching services. To reduce enterprises’ working capital financing costs, we propose further lowering the usage fees for our city’s emergency bridging loan funds for small, medium, and micro enterprises, adjusting the reduction from 20% to 30%.To support enterprises in going public and expanding their scale and strength, we will thoroughly implement the “Zhao Xing Plan” to encourage enterprises to utilize capital markets, adopt a “one-enterprise-one-policy” approach, and accelerate the cultivation of listed companies; we will support listed companies in expanding their scale and strengthening their capabilities through capital increases, production expansion, share issuances, bond issuance, and mergers and acquisitions;We will continue to optimize the business environment and strengthen the supply of resources and factors of production, striving to achieve a “double increase” in both the total number of listed and listed-on-exchange enterprises and the market capitalization of listed enterprises by the end of 2026.
25 Policies to Stabilize Investment and Boost Consumption: Further Improving the Efficiency of Resource Allocation
This primarily involves strengthening the coordinated management of key city-wide projects, accelerating the planning and advancement of major infrastructure projects in transportation, water conservancy, and environmental protection, and organizing a series of consumption-promotion activities to drive simultaneous growth and improvement in both investment and consumption.Specifically, to accelerate the construction of major municipal projects, the plan proposes establishing a dedicated task force for parallel approval of major projects. This task force will focus on resolving approval issues in critical areas such as land use, forest use, energy consumption, design, and funding, thereby strengthening the supply of project resources and facilitating the early implementation of projects to provide new momentum for stabilizing investment.To stabilize and expand private investment, the city will identify and reserve more high-quality projects in sectors such as rail transit, affordable rental housing, and new infrastructure. Through initiatives like pilot Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) in the infrastructure sector and Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), the city aims to attract and leverage more social capital to participate in infrastructure project development.
In addition to implementing national and provincial policies and measures, our city has proposed five new initiatives tailored to our local characteristics and actual conditions. These include encouraging leading enterprises to integrate upstream and downstream resources both within and outside the city to build stable supply chains; guiding leading enterprises in industrial chains to develop contingency plans or lists of alternative solutions; planning and constructing a batch of environmental infrastructure projects; and researching and introducing policies to promote real estate consumption, vigorously fostering the stable development of the real estate market through measures such as increasing the loan limit for first-home housing provident fund loans and lowering down payment ratios.Implement a project-based work approach, routinely advance project planning and reserve development, and increase funding support for project preliminary work. High-level planning and construction of the “Guangdong Province (Zhaoqing) Large-Scale Industrial Cluster Zone,” among others.
9 Policies to Ensure Food and Energy Security: Securing Our Food Supply and Strengthening Our Foundations
These primarily include accelerating the distribution of arable land fertility protection subsidies and ensuring the supply of agricultural inputs; actively advancing the construction of backbone power plants, new energy projects, and natural gas pipeline networks; securing coal supply for power generation through multiple channels; and ensuring the city’s food and energy security. Regarding food security, efforts will focus on steadily increasing grain production capacity, ensuring the effective supply of major agricultural products and agricultural ecological security, further refining subsidy policies, enhancing the scale and organization of grain production as well as the level of socialized services, improving the agricultural support and protection system, and boosting the sustainable development capacity of agriculture.Regarding energy supply security, in conjunction with the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (Zhaoqing) Green Energy Base, key measures include “accelerating the progress of our city’s backbone power generation projects,” “focusing on advancing approximately 70 newly started energy projects,” and “expediting the construction of a batch of green energy projects such as photovoltaic, wind power, and pumped-storage hydroelectric facilities.”
31 Policies to Ensure the Stability of Industrial and Supply Chains: Further Increase the Localization Rate of the New Energy Vehicle Industry Chain
This primarily involves strictly implementing national and provincial preferential measures regarding water, electricity, and gas supply; import and export goods; “whitelists” for key enterprises; and supply guarantees during the pandemic. Additionally, based on local conditions, concrete measures have been proposed to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in overcoming difficulties, ensure the stable development of key industries and enterprises, and unblock “major arteries” while facilitating “microcirculation.”Regarding support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to overcome difficulties, the plan proposes allowing SMEs renting standard industrial factory buildings to defer rent payments. Landlords (including both state-owned and non-state-owned entities) who reduce or waive rent may be eligible for reductions in property tax and urban land use tax for that year, which is expected to effectively alleviate operational pressures on SMEs;Regarding the cultivation and optimization of industrial and supply chains, the plan proposes further implementation of incentive policies for the new energy vehicle industry chain, support for the construction of a public service platform for Zhaoqing’s new energy vehicle and auto parts industries, and the hosting of large-scale industrial chain matching events to guide new energy vehicle manufacturers in collaborating with auto parts and raw material suppliers.The highlight of this provision lies in effectively increasing the local supply chain coverage rate, reducing enterprises’ logistics costs, and forming a more comprehensive new energy vehicle and auto parts industrial chain. It is expected that within this year, a number of local auto parts enterprises will be able to supply vehicle manufacturers, with the supply chain coverage rate reaching 30%. In terms of reducing costs for enterprises, our city has proposed a new measure tailored to local conditions: “Further support for enterprises in the Zhaoqing region to use the ‘One-Port-Pass’ and ‘Combined Port’ customs clearance models to improve customs clearance efficiency and reduce enterprises’ comprehensive logistics costs.”
20 Policies to Safeguard Basic Livelihoods: Promoting Employment and Ensuring Livelihoods
These primarily encompass three policy areas. Regarding housing provident fund support, measures such as deferring contributions and adjusting credit enforcement will effectively reduce the housing provident fund and home-purchase burdens on enterprises and individuals affected by the pandemic, thereby maintaining the orderly operation of the real estate market.Regarding support policies for the employment and entrepreneurship of rural-to-urban migrants and rural laborers, the city will achieve the rational allocation of public resources by improving basic public services, accelerating the development of affordable rental housing, and issuing entrepreneurship guarantee loans. It will enhance the quality and efficiency of employment services by providing employment and entrepreneurship subsidies and strengthening information matching. Furthermore, it will strengthen the foundation and expand the capacity of the employment environment by promoting the construction of entrepreneurship bases, implementing subsidies for public welfare positions, supporting vocational skills training, and conducting professional title evaluations for rural artisans.Regarding the improvement of social safety nets, the focus is on ensuring that the public’s basic livelihood remains unaffected by establishing a linkage mechanism between social assistance and price fluctuations, improving the operational system for assistance and subsidy funds, and implementing measures for epidemic prevention and control as well as price stabilization and supply assurance of daily necessities. Furthermore, by implementing a three-year special campaign on work safety and improving emergency response plans, we aim to achieve a balanced and robust approach to both development and safety.
