Industrial robots are operating on an intelligent production line in a smart manufacturing enterprise in Yangzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province. Photo: VCG

Multiple Chinese cities, including Dongguan in South China's Guangdong Province, have announced policies to stabilize employment and manufacturing around the Chinese Lunar New Year holidays (which fall on February 10-17 this year) in order to ensure a strong economic start and sustained recovery in 2024.

Dongguan will offer subsidies of 300 yuan ($42) to each worker from outside Guangdong who returns to work at key enterprises from February 12 to 17, while 200 yuan will be provided for those who return from February 18 to 20, according to a circular on the local government website.

Enterprises in the city will get subsidies of up to 300,000 yuan in total from February 10 to March 9. The city is using targeted policies to ensure production in manufacturing enterprises above the designated scale (which refer to industrial enterprises with revenue from principal activities over 20 million yuan), services firms enhancing their effectiveness, and enterprises attending exhibitions, among others.

Quanzhou in East China's Fujian Province and Yongkang in East China's Zhejiang Province have announced similar measures to encourage enterprises to expand employment and increase output for a good start in 2024.

Enterprises in Quanzhou will get a subsidy of 1,000 yuan per worker, capped at 200,000 yuan in total, if they take active measures to stabilize their workforce and maintain continuous production in February.

The moves come as local governments implement pro-growth policies to kick-start the country's economic recovery in 2024 following the tone-setting Central Economic Work Conference held in December 2023.

On the first working day of 2024, Han Wenxiu, executive deputy director of the office of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs, wrote in an article published in the People's Daily that China's economic recovery and long-term improvement remain unchanged, calling for the implementation of policies that would help stabilize expectations, promote growth and boost employment. 

"The Chinese economy is experiencing a comprehensive, full-blown recovery across many sectors. The economy is expected to perform better than foreign financial institutions' forecasts for 2024, and may reach 5 percent growth," Cao Heping, an economist at Peking University, told the Global Times.

He said the government should step up credit support in 2024 in order to ensure reasonable and ample liquidity to meet the needs of the real economy.

With a sound upswing to the country's recovery momentum, China remains attractive to foreign investment with expanding market access.

"We are more committed to China than ever," Qian Yujun, chairman of UBS Securities, said at UBS' 2024 Greater China Conference on Monday, noting that the company has seen bright spots and resilience in China, despite the difficulties in 2023.

Qian said that the company expected China's potential GDP to grow by an average of 4-4.5 percent for the rest of this decade, contributing to one-third of global growth.