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On September 7th, a research team came to Wuhu to inspect the pilot work of integrated elderly care and medical services in the city by listening to introductions, referring to materials, conducting on-the-spot inspection and interviews.

At Huakang smart Elderly Care Center in Jiujiang District, the research team went into the nursing ward, living quarter, multi-functional activity hall and other areas to learn more about the work flow, medical staff, and the management of software and hardware facilities of the center, and appraised the service mode of integrated elderly care and medical services combining disease prevention, medical treatment, rehabilitation care and living care. In front of the big screen of the smart elderly care cloud platform, they learned about the digital construction of medical care and diagnosis and treatment services, and praised the relevant achievements.

The research team said that according to the principle of taking social benefits as the core and sustainable development as the goal, we should strengthen the scientific management of medical and elderly care institutions, improve the working mechanism of medical and elderly care linkage, continuously enhance the professional service level and service supply capacity. We should constantly expand the number of managers, professional and technical personnel and nursing staff in medical and elderly care institutions, encourage and attract more resources to flow to the integrated elderly care and medical services, and promote the orderly flow of professionals. We should speed up the digital construction of medical care, give full play to the influence of medical care institutions, promote the cultural and ethical spirit of respecting and loving the elderly, and constantly improve the elderly’s sense of well-being.

Translated by Wang Mengxiao from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government

Villagers have a meal outside a tent in Xingfu village of Shimian county, Ya’an city, Southwest China’s Sichuan province, Sept 10, 2022. [Photo/Xinhua]

Sichuan province announced the termination of its highest response level to the recent earthquake as of 6 pm on Monday, shifting the focus to restoring infrastructure and resuming daily life in the quake zone.

The magnitude 6.8 quake on Sept 5 caused 93 deaths and left 25 missing in Sichuan’s Luding county and neighboring areas.

According to the local rescue headquarters, 55 of the deaths occurred in the Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture, where Luding is located, while 38 were reported in the city of Ya’an, as of 5 pm on Sunday.

Among the missing were nine people in Luding and 16 in Shimian county of Ya’an.

Sichuan authorities announced the termination of the province’s Level I response at a news conference in the town of Moxi, in Luding, on Monday. It said that while efforts to rescue the severely injured and locate missing people will continue, attention will also be given to providing sufficient supplies to people living in the quake zone and restoring electricity, water and telecommunication infrastructure, the provincial authorities said.

Also on Monday, a mourning ceremony for compatriots killed in the earthquake was held simultaneously in Moxi and Shimian.

At 12:52 pm, the exact time that the earthquake occurred, an air defense siren sounded over Moxi, and everyone observed three minutes of silence for those who died in the quake.

Then some leaders from Sichuan and the People’s Liberation Army’s Western Theater Command presented flowers for the victims and expressed their sorrow.

According to the Sichuan Provincial Commission of Health, 423 people who were injured in the quake had been transferred to hospitals as of 4 pm on Sunday.

Among them, the first three earthquake-injured patients were discharged from Ya’an Municipal People’s Hospital on Sunday, the provincial health authority said.

Many places have gradually resumed business. Shops with a green label, which designates that the building has been evaluated and is safe, opened in Moxi on Sunday. Shoppers found a variety of daily necessities, and water, power and telecommunication service resumed in all six villages in Moxi on Sunday, according to CCTV.

In addition, students in some villages returned to schools.

Visitors to Aiguo village of Wanggangping township in Shimian witnessed activities in temporary classrooms of Wanggangping Township Second Primary School, where 106 students resumed classes on Sunday. The school was badly damaged by the earthquake.

“When the earthquake took place, the students were having lunch, and the teachers present promptly transferred them to a safe area, counted the number of people and found no casualties,” school Principal Mao Chengjun said.

Most teachers and students felt uncomfortable on the first night following the earthquake, and they only had a sense of security after the rescue team arrived, he said.

After the quake, the Sichuan Forest Fire Rescue Team moved the students’ school bags, textbooks and daily necessities out of the damaged building. Forest firefighters from the city of Panzhihua, Sichuan, removed benches from the damaged classrooms and completed construction of temporary classrooms in a resettlement building in the village of Aiguo.

Students harvest sweet potatoes during their first class of the new semester in Huzhou, Zhejiang province, on Thursday. They gathered sugar cane and watered vegetables as they learned about the importance of hard work in farming. XIE SHANGGUO/FOR CHINA DAILY

Sessions on practical skills to help cultivate perseverance, teamwork

When primary and secondary school students started the new school year on Thursday, many would have noticed a new course in their curriculum focusing on practical skills, such as housekeeping and cooking.

The new course was introduced after the Ministry of Education released a new curriculum standard for labor education in compulsory education.

The standard has three types of tasks: Everyday chores such as cleaning, organizing and cooking; agricultural or manufacturing labor like growing vegetables and making handicrafts; and service such as volunteer work.

Song Xiaoning, mother of a first grader in Beijing, said she looks forward to what her daughter will learn at the new once-a-week labor course.

“I think it is very important for her to have a labor course at school as she can learn to appreciate manual labor and the hardworking spirit,” she said. “She very much relies on us and her teachers, and I want her to learn how to do things by herself and become more independent.”

At Zhenjiang Zhongshan Road Primary School in Jiangsu province, the first lesson for the new school year on Thursday was to check on the vegetables that are growing in the school garden, said Liu Peipei, principal of the school.

In the past, students at the school have learned how to prepare some cold dishes in the canteen, and with the help of parents, some were able to cook more sophisticated dishes, such as fried chicken and even make mooncakes, she added.

Hao Yufang, vice-principal of Chunguang Primary School in Handan, Hebei province, said since labor courses started last semester, they have become the favorite subject for many students.

Depending on the age of the students, they learn different practical skills, such as cleaning, organizing, gardening and cooking, she said.

To make the courses more interesting, the school has organized a clothes folding competition for first and second graders, a garlic peeling competition for third and fourth graders and cold dish competition for fifth and sixth graders, she said.

First graders are also required to clean the classroom by themselves. Although they might not know how to do it well and teachers often need to do the cleaning again afterward, the important thing is for them to know that manual labor is important for their growth, she added.

Cui Shifeng, principal of Hefei Hupo Mingcheng Primary School in Anhui province, said labor courses can teach students to respect labor and know that labor can create happiness.

The school has organized students to visit farming bases to teach them the whole process of rice growing, he said. With the guidance of teachers and professionals, they have learned everything from sowing to reaping rice, Cui said.

They have also gone to communities near the school to collect garbage and help elderly people do household chores, he said.

“Labor courses cannot be easy or superficial. Students need to make real efforts and sweat when taking labor courses, so they can really cultivate virtues of strong willpower, perseverance and teamwork,” he added.

A Chery Holding Group employee installs parts in a vehicle at the company’s plant in Wuhu, Anhui province. [Photo/Xinhua]

HEFEI – Chinese automaker Chery Holding Group Co Ltd reported strong sales in the first eight months of 2022, according to the company’s monthly sales report.

The company sold 748,550 vehicles in the January-August period, up 30 percent year-on-year. Of the sales, exports amounted to 250,633 vehicles, up 51.1 percent year-on-year.

In August alone, Chery sold 141,767 vehicles, up 111 percent year-on-year. Of the total, 51,774 units were exported, up 152.7 percent year-on-year, setting a monthly record for the company.

Sales of Chery’s new-energy vehicles in August saw 267.8-percent year-on-year growth, reaching 28,459 units, which also set the company’s monthly record.

Visitors tour an exhibition for the 2022 Cybersecurity Week in Hefei, Anhui province, on Sunday. ZHANG DAGANG/FOR CHINA DAILY

Improving cybersecurity requires wider participation and better integration among education, technology and industry, said China’s top cyberspace administration authorities during the opening ceremony of the 2022 Cybersecurity Week on Monday.

“We should build a nationwide integrated system to safeguard key information infrastructure, such as the industrial internet,” Zhuang Rongwen, director of the Cyberspace Administration of China, said during the ceremony held in Hefei, Anhui province.

Themed “Cybersecurity for the People and by the People”, Cybersecurity Week, which will run through Sept 11, is organized by 10 government departments, including the CAC, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Public Security.

To improve cybersecurity’s industrial development, the country should accelerate building a national cybersecurity talent and innovation cultivation system, which will reinforce the roles of enterprises, scientific research institutions and colleges, according to Zhuang.

To serve these purposes, authorities launched the country’s first batch of pilot areas for the integrated development of cybersecurity education, technology and industry during the Monday event.

The areas include the national high-tech industrial development zones in Hefei, Changsha and Jinan, as well as in Haidian district in Beijing and Yanta district in Xi’an.

“In the past, when we talked about cybersecurity issues, it was often about the crashing of a digital system. However, the issue is increasingly connected with our daily lives and production activities, like how food safety affects all of us,” Zhao Zeliang, deputy director of the CAC, said at the summit forum held after the opening ceremony on Monday morning.

“Now society is facing increasing cybersecurity threats and risks such as telecommunication fraud and infringement of privacy,” said Zhang Hongwen, vice-governor of Anhui, who urged for more R&D and the mastery of new technologies to address the challenges.

“In the digital era, traditional cybersecurity services based on manual intervention cannot provide enough and effective protections anymore for the explosively expanding digitization processes,” said He Chaoxi, president of Sangfor Technologies, a leading cybersecurity company.

The cybersecurity industry itself is also in urgent need of digitization to take advantage of such technologies as cloud computing and artificial intelligence to quickly discover loopholes and provide solutions, said He, an alumnus of Hefei-based University of Science and Technology of China.

Cybersecurity technologies can improve people’s lives, and so the cybersecurity industry itself can also be a new pillar for economic growth, according to participants of the forum.

With more than 150 companies engaged in the cybersecurity industry, Hefei has been building the China Security Valley in recent years, with the core area located in the Hefei high-tech zone, according to Zhang.

The Hefei government said the cybersecurity industry has created around 50,000 jobs in the city, which yearns for more such talent.

Anhui marks the country’s latest development achievements in quantum information, as Hefei-based institutions and companies were the main developers for the Beijing-Shanghai Trunk Line, the world’s first and longest quantum communication network, according to Zhang.

Developed by the USTC and Quantum CTek, the country’s first publicly traded company in the quantum information field, the country’s first citywide quantum network was recently put into use in Hefei.

Originating from the USTC, Quantum CTek itself is a result of the integrated development of education, technologies and industry, and the company will further cooperate with colleges and universities to cultivate more talent for the cybersecurity industry, said Zhou Lei, project director of the company.

On August 23, the third professional skills competition for teachers in technical colleges of Anhui Province opened in Wuhu. Liu Shaohua, Deputy Director of the Provincial Human Resources and Social Security Department, declared the opening of the competition. Cai Yi, Vice Mayor of Wuhu Municipal Government, delivered a speech.

With the theme of “cultivating people with moral education and skills education“, the competition consists of two events: teaching competition and headteacher competition, including teaching scheme design, lecture and thesis defense, theme class meeting design and other competition contents. The competition involves professional disciplines of machinery, electrical and electronic, information, etc. as well as public courses.

The competition is hosted by the Provincial Human Resources and Social Security Department, organized by the Provincial Skilled Personnel Management Service Center and Wuhu Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, and co–organized by Anhui Wuhu Technician College and Wuhu Municipal Vocational Skills Appraisal Center. The purpose of the activity is to guide all technical colleges and universities in the province to strengthen the professional construction of teachers, improve the ability of teachers’ moral education and skills education, raise the training quality of skilled personnel, and further promote the high-quality development of technical education in our province. A total of 172 teachers from 50 technical colleges and universities in 15 prefectures and cities participated in the competition.

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

On August 17th, the inaugural meeting of Xin’an Medicine Research Center of Wannan Medical College and the groundbreaking ceremony of the statue of Li Jiren, a master of traditional Chinese medicine, were held in the First Affiliated Hospital of Wannan Medical College. Wang Guoqiang, former deputy director of the National Health and Family Planning Commission and former director of National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Yang Zhibin, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Wuhu Municipal Committee and minister of Organization Department, attended the meeting.

Wang Guoqiang said in his speech that Xin’an Medicine is one of the outstanding representatives of traditional Chinese medicine and many academic schools. It is hoped that the research center will inherit the essence of Xin’an Medicine, make innovations on the basis of tradition, systematically inherit the academic thoughts and clinical diagnosis and treatment experience of the “master of traditional Chinese medicine”, open up new models, achieve and create new achievements, and better meet people’s diversified needs of traditional Chinese medicine services.

On behalf of the CPC Wuhu Municipal Committee and the Municipal Government, Yang Zhibin congratulated the establishment of the research center. With the implementation of the “Milk Vetch Talents Plan” and “Hua Tuo Plan”and the building of the center, we look forward to further expanding the cooperation field between the city and the college, strengthening the reserve and cultivation of traditional Chinese medicine talents, improving the medical level of Wuhu, and enhancing the health and well-being of the people.

Tong Xiaolin, academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Liu Liang and Xiao Wei, academicians of Chinese Academy of Engineering, delivered speeches online, wishing Xin’an Medicine Research Center of Wannan Medical College vigorous development and striving to make new achievements in revitalizing Xin’an Medicine.

Translated by Wang Mengxiao from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government

On August 16, the inaugural meeting of Anhui New Economy Federation and the first member congress of the first session were held in Wanzhi District. Niu Nutao, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director of the Provincial Economy and Information Technology  Department, Pan Feng, chief economist, and Tang Jinsong, Vice Mayor of Wuhu Municipal Government, attended the meeting.

Niu Nutao said in his speech that new economy is the power source for promoting high-quality economic development and building a modern economic system by opening up new tracks and forging new advantages. We should persist in promoting breakthroughs in new and cutting-edge technologies, and let entrepreneurs become innovation leaders and enterprises become innovation subjects. With new products, we should be devoted to the creation of new consumption, firmly grasping the strategic basis of expanding domestic demand, and launching more high-quality and explosive products. We should adhere to cultivating new driving forces with new business forms, and promote the deep integration of big data, cloud computing and physical industries with the dual wheel drive of “industrial digitization and digital industrialization”. We should continue the policy of empowering new manufacturing with new models, focusing on industrial interconnection, intellectual transformation and digital transformation, and promoting the upgrading of the manufacturing industry.

Tang Jinsong congratulated and thanked the Federation for its settlement in Wuhu. He said that in recent years, Wuhu has focused on new technologies, new industries, new formats and new models, fully utilized the leading role of new and cutting-edge enterprises, actively cultivated new economic development momentum, and achieved fruitful results. The establishment of the federation will promote the integrated development of new economy innovation chain, supply chain, talent chain, industrial chain and capital chain, build a platform for government enterprise communication and cooperation, and help accelerate the development of new economy in Wuhu and the whole province.

It is reported that in order to comply with the development trend of the new economy, assist in the work of “investment attraction and talents recruitment“, and learn from the experience and practice of Qingdao New Economy Federation, with the support of the Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology and the Provincial Civil Affairs Department, Wuhu Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology organized the establishment of Anhui New Economy Federation, together with Three Squirrels, iFLYTEK and other seven initiators. The Federation aims to study and grasp the characteristics and trends of new economic development, build a communication bridge between the government and enterprises, and promote the development of new economy in our province.

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

On August 5th, “Chery Arrizo 8 & iFlytek Strategic Signing Ceremony” was held in Hefei. This is an important transition from “comprehensive” cooperation to “comprehensively deepening” cooperation on the basis of the formal establishment of strategic cooperation between the two sides in 2017 and the signing of the Framework Agreement on Comprehensively Deepening Strategic Cooperation in May 2021.

According to the agreement, the two sides will continue to comprehensively deepen cooperation in seven major sectors, such as intelligent cockpit, intelligent sound effects, intelligent sales service, international multilingual service, intelligent driving, industrial intelligence and enterprise digitalization, based on their respective superior resources, deeply participate in the strategic planning of enterprises’ future development, and become the prior partner of each other.

In addition to the cooperation areas clearly agreed in the strategic cooperation framework agreement, the two sides will also explore cooperation in cockpit hardware, forward-looking technology, product promotion and marketing, and jointly promote the platform-based comprehensive cooperation of Arrizo.

It is learned that at present, many Chery models have been equipped with iFlytek artificial intelligent technology and solutions. In this signing, “AI intelligent education” system has attracted much attention. Chery’s brand-new flagship Arrizo 8 will build a mobile “intelligent education cockpit” with nearly 8,000 kinds of free listening and broadcasting resources, sound reproduction and interconnection between cars and intelligent hardware by carrying the industry’s first “AI intelligent education” system.

Translated by Wang Mengxiao from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government

An employee works on the production line of an elevator component manufacturer in Haian, Jiangsu province. GU HUAXIA/FOR CHINA DAILY

Development climate improving as effects of pro-growth policy realized

China’s small and medium-sized enterprises have shown upward momentum in resuming work and business activity, although further policy efforts are needed so that more of them can resume operations at full capacity, according to a recent survey by the China Association of small and Medium Enterprises.

Facing multiple challenges and difficulties, smEs are under huge pressure to sustain profitability and growth, but their development climate is improving as the effects of pro-growth policy measures gradually unleash more potential, experts said, while calling for more policies to shore up smE growth.

China’s small and Medium Enterprises Development Index for July, based on the association’s survey of 3,000 SMEs, showed around 43.7 percent of surveyed firms were operating at over 75 percent capacity, up 1.75 percentage points from a month earlier.

The proportion of enterprises operating beneath 75 percent capacity was 47.75 percent, dropping 2.6 percentage points from that of June.

However, the overall SME development index declined slightly from 88.4 in June to 88.3 in July.

Ma Bin, executive deputy president of the association, said Chinese SMEs currently face more pressure and difficulties as the impact of domestic resurgences of COVID-19 lingers and exacerbates shrinking demand, supply shocks and weakening expectations, while uncertainties in global markets also grow due to factors such as the pandemic, geopolitical issues and increasing concerns over stagflation in the global economy.

“Pressure and difficulties facing small and micro-sized enterprises are especially obvious,” Ma said, adding that major problems facing SMEs, especially small and microsized firms, include rising costs, meager profits, financing difficulties and labor shortages.

She suggested more efforts be made to consolidate the upward momentum of the economic recovery.

Among the subindexes for eight sectors surveyed, transportation, postal and wholesale/retail registered month-on-month increases, while construction, lodging and dining stayed flat from June.

Indexes for industry, real estate, social services and information transmission and computer software all dropped slightly.

Zhou Maohua, an analyst at China Everbright Bank, said the resumption of work and business among SMEs is still beneath pre-pandemic levels, despite remarkable recent progress.

But Zhou said SME operations will continue to improve as domestic demand rebounds on the back of the accelerating Chinese economic recovery.

“China is gaining better control over COVID-19 and disruptions from the contagion to business operations and people’s lives are weakening,” he said.

“That, together with more policy effects expected to be unleashed to ensure supplies, stabilize prices and help enterprises stabilize growth, will lead to more rebound in domestic demand to steadily improve SMEs’ operations and profitability,” Zhou added.

According to the SME association’s survey results, subindexes for SME development in the construction industry, transportation, postal and storage sectors have risen for three consecutive months.

The survey also found that among the eight industries surveyed, liquidity indexes for seven industries and financing indexes for five rose from that in June.

Chen Jia, a researcher at the International Monetary Institute of the Renmin University of China, said there will be ample opportunities to shore up growth of SMEs in sectors such as digital infrastructure, new energy, digital economy and modern services, as China stresses development in related industries.

Chen suggested China improve financing policies and services for SMEs, as well as guide more investment and talent into emerging and promising industries, instead of labor-intensive ones that already suffer from fierce competition, in order to optimize resource allocation.

He also suggested industry funds at both national and local levels pay more attention to SMEs in strategically important industries, such as the internet of things chips, new-generation artificial intelligence networks and smart driving technologies.