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As New Year’s Day and the Spring Festival of 2021 are approaching， in order to prevent and control the risk of COVID-19 importation and transmission, the Office of the Comprehensive Emergency Response Headquarters for COVID-19 Prevention and Control in Anhui Province has recently issued a notice on of COVID-19  during the New Year’s Day and the Spring Festival of 2021.

The “notice” requires local governments of all regions to organize capable force, strengthen community grid management, conscientiously carry out personnel information sorting and registration, especially for people from medium-high risk areas, inbound people and people engaged in cold chain handling, processing and transportation, so as to strengthen health monitoring and follow-up management and eliminate potential risks of epidemic importation. For migrant workers returning to Anhui, nucleic acid testing and health monitoring should be carried out in strict accordance with the requirements.

The notice stressed that people should be guided to do a good job in personal protection, adhere to masks-wearing and disinfection of hands, maintain a social distance of more than one meter, and strengthen the concept that individuals are the “first responsible person for health.”

The number of people involved in gatherings and other activities held by enterprises or public institutions shall be controlled. Prevention and control plans shall be formulated for activities involving more than 50 people and relevant prevention and control measures shall be strictly implemented. Family private gatherings, dinners, etc. should be limited to less than 10 people, and families should pay attention to window ventilation every day. If you find fever, dry cough, fatigue and other suspicious symptoms, you should go to the nearest medical institution as soon as possible.

Translated by Yuan Mengwen from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government

In September 2020, the State Council, China’s cabinet, issued the Overall Plan for the Beijing, Hunan, and Anhui Pilot Free Trade Zones and the Plan for the Expansion of the Zhejiang Pilot Free Trade Zone. This is the sixth batch of measures tested by the pilot FTZs since 2013, bringing the total number of free trade zones nationwide to 21.

President Xi Jinping, while presiding over the 15th meeting of the Central Commission for Deepening Overall Reform on September 1, called for efforts to promote deeper reform and pursue higher-standard opening-up to provide a strong impetus for shaping a new development pattern.

He stressed the necessity to link the establishment of a new development pattern with the implementation of the national strategy for coordinated regional development and the construction of pilot FTZs. He also said that regions where conditions permit should take the lead in exploring a new development pattern and creating new heights of reform and opening-up.

Dovetailing with the 14th Five-Year Plan

The construction of the sixth batch of pilot FTZs emphasizes the integrated development of metropolitan areas through the integration of industrialization, urbanization, and agriculture. This is also in line with the 14th Five-Year Plan.

The new batch of FTZs will focus on developing urban agglomerations in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and cities along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. It can be seen that the Beijing Pilot FTZ will form a pilot free trade belt with Tianjin and Hebei. The Anhui FTZ will be naturally running on the fast track of the Yangtze River Delta economic integration after it is approved. The FTZ in Hunan has a special role as an international investment and trade corridor linking the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, while deepening economic and trade cooperation with Africa.

The Beijing FTZ will focus on trade in services and the digital economy. Globalization is presently undergoing profound changes. If China is to continue to strengthen its function as a central node in the value chain of the Asia-Pacific region, it is particularly important that it builds a knowledge-intensive digital-oriented global value chain. There are a large number of headquarter enterprises in Beijing, and the differentiated development road charted for it shows that the central government has high hopes for Beijing and the unique role which the Beijing FTZ will play.

In addition to this, the Beijing FTZ is building itself into a sci & tech innovation center with global influence and in coordination with local reforms. All the reform tasks that meet the conditions can be fully implemented in the Zhongguancun National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone and gradually promoted across Beijing. From a certain perspective, the Beijing FTZ can be compared with the Shanghai Pilot FTZ, founded in 2013, and the Hainan Free Trade Port, proposed in June this year, because of its unique orientation.

After the establishment of the Beijing FTZ, the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region will seem particularly important. We should not only give full play to the characteristics of Beijing as the capital city, cultural center, and economic hub of China, but also to the role of Hebei as a manufacturing hub in the north and of Hebei Baoding Baigou Economic and Trade Zone. Baigou of Hebei Province is an important commodity distribution center. It will be an innovation if the Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei FTZs can be built into a model that incorporates manufacturing and commercial industries, with shipping and logistics in Tianjin Binhai New Area, manufacturing and commercial areas in Hebei Province, and service trade and a booming cultural industry in Beijing. The three can complement each other and develop together.

Wade into the Deep Water Zone

Hunan has long yearned to set up a FTZ of its own. Among central China provinces, Hunan is an important link between the middle reaches of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Objectively speaking, the city clusters in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River have achieved a high level of development, but there is still much room for further development. Hunan is the destination of an extensive transfer of industry and labor from Guangdong. Some processing trade companies have moved from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to Shaoguan in northern Guangdong, and then from Shaoguan to southern Hunan, which can be said to be the extension of the economic belt of the Greater Bay Area.

In addition, Hunan is also an important region in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Changsha, the provincial capital, is one of the three central cities in the city cluster of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and plays a leading role in central China’s economic development.

The Anhui FTZ has undertaken industrial transferring and agglomeration to the north, all of which give full play to the advantages along the Yangtze River from Wuhu to Ma’anshan and facilitates Anhui in integrating into the Yangtze River Delta. Having the support of the University of Science and Technology of China, Anhui can tap into its strength as a science and technology center providing intellectual support for economic integration in the Yangtze River region. It is also conducive to the differential development of Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui to give full play to their comparative advantages.

From a geographical perspective, all the provinces to the east of Heihe-Tengchong Line (regions southeast of the line account for 40 percent of Chinese land territory but more than 90 percent of Chinese population), except Jiangxi in the middle, Guizhou in the west, Shanxi in the north and Jilin in the northeast, are covered by FTZs. In the near future, free trade zones will be set up in every province east of the Heihe-Tengchong Line. This will be an important step for China in building a new pattern of all-round opening-up.

Over the past few years, FTZs have introduced policies to expedite customs clearance for imported goods into them and improve smart monitoring of flow of goods between them and other parts of the country. As long as there are no explicit prohibitions in relevant laws and regulations, citizens or legal persons can act on their own in FTZs. In addition, China is implementing a “pre-establishment national treatment” plus “negative list” management system for foreign investment, and moving ahead in liberalization of trade and the facilitation of investment, while continuing to streamline administration and delegate powers, all of which are tangible results of reform and opening-up.

It is expected that the opening-up and reform of the free trade area will lead to greater depths. Further reform is needed to promote development of the service trade, and China’s financial sector should accelerate in further opening up.

Within the context of China’s endeavors to build a dual circulation development pattern, the expansion of FTZs has broad implications. In the face of unprecedented changes and a once-in-a-century pandemic, China is advancing trade globalization by continuously building a new pattern to deepen all-round reform and expand opening-up on all fronts.

Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other five departments released the list of the second batch of pilot cities for industry-finance cooperation. Wuhu city was successfully selected into the list of the first batch of continuous pilot cities, making it the only city in our province.

It is reported that with cities as the carrier, the national pilot cities of industry-finance cooperation will explore new models of industry-finance cooperation, create an ecological environment of sound interaction and coordinated development between industry and finance, promote the deep integration of innovation chain, industrial chain, policy chain and talent chain, and accumulate experience for deepening the reform in the financial field. After preliminary examination, recommendation and expert evaluation, a total of 51 cities (districts) have been selected as the second batch of pilot cities for industry-finance cooperation. As one of the first batch of industrial and financial cooperation pilot cities selected in 2016, Wuhu was identified as one of the first batch of 18 cities to continue the pilot program after the three-year pilot period.

In recent years, our city attaches great importance to industry- finance cooperation. Closely focusing on the new industry, new technologies, new forms, new mode, and “four new added endowment” of economic development in the capital market, our city builds a platform for industry-finance cooperation, continuously strengthens the supporting role of finance for the industry, improves the policy system, expands the scale of the industry, and keeps the development of direct financing at a high level, which provides strong support for promoting the industrial transformation and upgrading and improving the quality and efficiency of enterprises in Wuhu.

Translated by Yuan Mengwen from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government

AFIENYA — China’s Chery Automobile Company on Sunday introduced its fleet of SUVs and pick-ups into the Ghanaian market.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Robert Tetteyfio Adjase, head of revenue asset and border protection in Office of the Ghanaian President, commended the Chinese company for the solid vehicles it has introduced into the market.

He expressed optimism the solid relationship between Ghana and China will continue to be deeper, saying that “I am very happy to see such thing here in Ghana, it was very amazing, the car performance was excellent, solid and smooth and I wish we can even have this as one of the cars for presidential convoys. What I can say is it is a very solid car and I can urge Ghanaians to go in for because Ghana and China have a solid relationship and we will like it to continue from generations to generations.”

Representative of Chery automobile in Ghana Luo Wei told Xinhua in an interview the company decided to enter the Ghanaian market largely due to the rapid growth of the country’s economy as well as being a safe destination for business.

He disclosed the company will be setting up a production line here in Ghana next year and hopes to employ between 1,000 to 2,000 local people.

As one of China’s leading automobile brands, Chery Automobile’s principal products include passenger cars, minivans, and SUVs.

Chery Holding Group sold 101,900 cars in November, up 36.4 percent year on year, with monthly sales and growth reaching the highest level in recent years, the reporter learned. Among them, domestic sales reached 88,454 units, up 31.7 percent year on year; 13,446 units were exported, up 78.3 percent year on year; New energy sales totaled 7,623 units, up 67.5 percent year on year.

Towards the end of 2020, Chery Tiggo 8 and Chery Jetour series products have become the market hot style, with monthly sales exceeding 20,000 units respectively, both setting new monthly sales records. In the field of new energy vehicles, Chery new energy vehicles delivered an impressive monthly sales volume of 7,620 units, with a year-on-year growth of 239.3 percent.

Chery Group not only achieved growth against domestic economy downtrend, but also made continuous breakthroughs in the overseas market. From January to November, Chery exported a total of 100,126 vehicles, with a year-on-year growth of 15 percent. In November, Chery won the Top 20 in the evaluation of overseas image of Chinese enterprises jointly guided by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, which is the fifth time for Chery to win this honor. At the same time, in the sub-industry list, Chery ranked the first in the automobile industry.

Recently, the seminar and exchange meeting on institutional innovation of Anhui Free Trade Zone for foreign-invested enterprises in Wuhu Area was held. Executives of 36 foreign-invested enterprises and leaders of Foreign Affairs Office, Wuhu Free Trade Office, Investment Promotion Center and other relevant municipal departments attended the meeting.

At the symposium, directors of Wuhu Free Trade Office introduced the development and relevant institutional innovation of the free trade area, and Municipal Foreign Affairs Office recommended the APEC Business travel card to help enterprises “go abroad“. The representatives of entrepreneurs at the meeting put forward their opinions and suggestions on corporate operation, the existing difficulties, the next development plan and the situation of foreign investment. Responsible persons of relevant county (city), district and municipal direct departments responded to the appeals one by one.

The reporter learned from Municipal Investment Promotion Center that with the construction of the free trade zone, Wuhu‘s opening up and sino-foreign cooperation have reached a new level. At present, there are 485 foreign-funded enterprises in the city with a total investment of about 12.97 billion US dollars. From January to October this year, there were 23 signed and registered foreign-funded enterprises, and 15 foreign-funded projects were started. The actual utilization of foreign capital was about 2.66 billion US dollars.

 Translated by Yuan Mengwen from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government

    Xi Weijing, head of the Wuhu School for the Blind, gives a class for students with visual impairment at the school in Wuhu City, east China’s Anhui Province, Nov. 26, 2020. Xi Weijing’s parents are both visually-impaired. Her father Xi Manqiao set up a private school for the blind in 1979, devoting all his energy to the work of the school. After her father died of illness in 1994, Xi Weijing, then in her 20s, took the burden and became the second principal of the Wuhu School for the Blind. With the support of local government, the Wuhu School for the Blind has been relocated several times and its operating conditions have been greatly improved. At present, the school has more than 30 full-time teachers and more than 200 students. With a belief that special education is not only about imparting knowledge, but more importantly, shaping souls, Xi Weijing and her colleagues insisted on being students’ friends. She set up several bands for the students, improved the vocational education on massage therapy, and encouraged students to take the college entrance exam for the blind. “I will devote my whole life to the school, bringing a wider world to them.” Xi Weijing said. (Xinhua/Zhang Duan)

Recently, the Enterprise Federation of three provinces and one city in the Yangtze River Delta released the list of top 100 enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta 2020. Conch Group, Midea Group Wuhu Company, Chery Holding Group are on the list.

The top 100 companies in the Yangtze River Delta had a combined revenue of 16.4 trillion yuan, up 13.57 percent year-on-year, the list showed. Net profit totaled 711.23 billion yuan, up 19.60 percent year on year. The entry threshold reached 56.38 billion yuan, an increase of 5.45 billion yuan over last year.

For the regional distribution of the top 100 enterprises, Zhejiang Province ranks the first, reaching 35; Shanghai follows with 30. There are 26 in Jiangsu Province and nine in Anhui Province.

The list is based on corporate revenue in 2019. The reporter learned that there are 3 enterprises in Wuhu city among the top 100 in the Yangtze River Delta. Among them, Anhui Conch Group ranked 17th with the revenue of 234.3 billion yuan. Midea Group Wuhu Company ranked 75th on the list with revenues of 77 billion yuan. Chery Holding Group ranked 77th on the list with revenue of 75.9 billion yuan.

 Translated by Yuan Mengwen from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government

The second thematic scheduled meeting on the construction of Wuhu Area of Anhui Free Trade Zone was held on 20th, summarizing and reporting the progress of work in Wuhu area since the first scheduled meeting, deploying and promoting the work in the next stage. Vice Mayor He Dong attended the meeting.

He Dong pointed out that institutional innovation is the core of free trade area construction and relevant departments, including customs, business, science and technology, human resources and social security, must focus on summarizing experience to form more institutional innovation results as soon as possible. We will continue to increase efforts to attract big business and push projects to be launched as soon as possible. The construction of Wuhu area should adhere to the weekly scheduling and weekly progress to promote the implementation of all work.

It is reported that investment attraction, system innovation, enterprise registration, bulk commodity backflow, enterprise service center construction, planning and design and other work in Wuhu area are being effectively promoted. As of November 19, there are 812 registered enterprises in Wuhu area, with a total registered capital of 21.33 billion yuan.

 Translated by Yuan Mengwen from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government

Xi hails areas’ contribution to economic recovery, emphasizes focus on ecology

President Xi Jinping has underlined the importance of developing the Yangtze River Economic Belt to promote the country’s high-quality socioeconomic development as proposed in a blueprint adopted by a key Party meeting last month.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remark at a symposium in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, on Saturday.

The seminar was held after he concluded a two-day inspection tour which brought him to Nantong and Yangzhou, cities along the Yangtze River. Xi visited places including the waterfront along the Yangtze River and the Grand Canal, a key water control project and cultural heritage site.

It was Xi’s first domestic inspection tour after the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, which set China’s major social and economic development targets for the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25).

Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and flooding disasters this year, the Yangtze River Economic Belt has made a prominent contribution as China takes the lead in economic recovery among major world economies, Xi said.

He urged the region to become a major force promoting the country’s green development that gives priority to ecology, promotes the establishment of a new development paradigm and advances high-quality development. The new “dual-circulation” development paradigm takes the domestic market as the mainstay while the domestic and international markets boost each other.

The Yangtze River Economic Belt covers the 11 provincial-level regions of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Chongqing, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and Shanghai. It accounts for nearly half of the country’s population and total economic output.

Xi urged efforts to build the region into a demonstration area that advances green development and promotes harmonious coexistence between people and nature, a key element in formulating China’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and future targets for 2035. The restoration of the Yangtze River’s ecological environment should be a top priority, he said.

He also called on the region to define its own position in the country’s overall development and explore effective ways to stimulate the domestic market. Efforts should be made to combine demand with supply and push forward coordinated development in the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Xi said.

To build the Yangtze River Economic Belt into a new platform of high-level opening-up, Xi said efforts should be made to foster more opening-up platforms in inland areas.

According to Xi, provinces and cities along the Yangtze River should find their own positions in the new development paradigm and proactively open their markets to the world. He urged efforts to promote the integration of the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and jointly building the Belt and Road by expanding investment and trade as well as promoting people-to-people exchanges.

He also stressed efforts to protect the cultural relics and heritage of the river, deepen study of the Yangtze River culture and promote its creative transformation and development.