File photo of Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council. Photo:Xinhua

 
A total of 11 Taiwan-invested companies included on Shanghai’s “white list” are operating under closed-loop management or gradually resuming production despite the latest COVID-19 outbreak, Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson from the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Ma said that local authorities in Shanghai and neighboring Suzhou, East China’s Jiangsu Province actively adopted a series of measures to provide Taiwan-invested companies relief and help stabilize production.

Local authorities in Shanghai and Suzhou have rolled out relief measures for Taiwanese companies, while the Taiwan Affairs Office in Shanghai also introduced highly-effective anti-pandemic measures to these companies to support production resumption, Ma said.

He said that the offices in Shanghai and Suzhou have also established special work groups to help solve the problems of Taiwan companies and residents. In addition, Shanghai actively helped to connect these companies with financial institutions and have set up a special services window to accelerate approval process for financing, whereas the office in Kunshan, Suzhou helps solve the problem of goods transport.

A total of 22 Taiwan-invested companies which appear on the “white list” issued by Kunshan, Suzhou that report zero cases can apply to resume production under the closed-loop management, Ma said.

He pointed out that many Taiwan-invested companies have actively participated in anti-pandemic work. As of April 20, Taiwan-invested companies and businessmen donated goods and cash worth 10.98 million yuan ($1.67 million).

While Shanghai and neighboring cities are fighting the worst COVID-19 flare-ups in 2022, local governments actively support major enterprises to restart production.

By Friday, seventy percent of Shanghai’s 666 major enterprises had resumed production, according to the Shanghai government. Meanwhile, Shanghai has also made progress in reopening transportation channels for key production materials through the resumption of work and production across the industrial chain.

Cities in the Yangtze River Delta region – including Shanghai and provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui – have been working on a “white list” of key companies eligible to resume work to ensure production across the entire industrial chain.

Global Times