BEIJING, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) — After 20-plus days of suspension amid the COVID-19 outbreak, two zones of Yiwu International Trade City located in Yiwu, a wind vane of China’s foreign trade, resumed operation at 9:00 am on February 18, under targeted and intelligent control measures against the epidemic.
More than 10,000 merchants who have passed health examination opened their «doors» to welcome global merchants, with great expectation.
— 10,000-plus merchants welcome global businessmen
In Yiyu, «the world’s supermarket», Yiwu International Trade City has a total business area of 5.5 million square meters to offer around 1.8 million types of products in 26 categories. Here all sorts of China-made products are being shipped to over 200 countries and regions. Global merchants flow to Yiwu and bring goods to each corner of the world.
At this point, the COVID-19 prevention and control in China has entered a new stage. To make global petty commodities supply chain more resilient against the epidemic, Yiwu City has given equal importance to both COVID-19 prevention and control and work resumption, and has made full preparations for safe market operation.
When the Zone I and Zone II of Yiwu International Trade City opened at 9:00 am on February 18, market merchants queued up to enter. Jordanian merchant Mamo operates a barbecue grill shop in Zone II. He was too impatient to wait for such a day. After taking temperature, showing health code, and reviewing information, he and other merchants returned to the familiar market. As usual, the first thing Mamo did after opening the shop was to paste the New Year scrolls «Sheng Yi Xing Long (A Booming Business)» on door lintel. «Yiwu government has taken timely and forceful measures for epidemic control and work resumption. Things are becoming better, and I believe the epidemic will end one day,» said Mamo.
In Zone I, Lebanese procurer Besir and his partners were choosing accessories. After seeing opening notice, he immediately submitted health application and filled in health conditions, contact history, travel history, travel plan and other information. «Strict measures are taken for the sake of everyone’s health, and I believe all merchants coming to Yiwu can understand it. I will still introduce friends to Yiwu,» said Besir, who believes that as long as effective measures are taken and personal protection is ensured, Yiwu is still a dynamic city full of business opportunities.
An executive in charge of Yiwu International Trade City, noted that in a bid to ensure safety and controllability, Yiwu has learned experiences from China International Import Expo to put the market under closed cell management and formulate a series of standard market prevention and control measures. THe Zone I and Zone II have a total of 16 entrances, with each entrance equipped with infrared thermometer and other intelligent devices. Big data and intelligent information platforms are used to check individual code of every merchant and purchaser before they enter.
Meanwhile, «minimum cell control» has been launched and timely efforts are made to settle disputes and offer other services. With each shop as a table cell, merchants check the QR code of purchasers entering their shops and record their information to ensure traceability; each «control cell» is made up of nine shops. In case of abnormal conditions, such an approach can ensure fast control. In the market, sterilization, secondary temperature measurement, facial recognition and other measures are taken in a standard, normalized and strict manner, to ensure safe and orderly market operation.
Besides, Yiwu has issued policies to help merchants and optimize business environment. On one hand, during market suspension, shop rent is exempted for merchants to help importers in financing. On the other hand, great efforts have been made to ensure supporting services needed for market opening, such as restaurant and hotel, foreign trade, logistics, customs clearance, and finance, to provide all-round accommodation, travel and foreign trade services to purchasers, involving 500 foreign trade enterprises, some 100 international freight forwarders, and about 150 catering providers in and around the market. Hotels affiliated to the market group offer three-day free accommodation to foreign purchasers in their first visit to Yiwu.
— «Luxury gift» empowers work resumption
Logistics is a pre-requisite of market recovery. Since YXE International Container Train sent its first train after the Spring Festival to enter normal operation on February 10, all logistics platforms and postal express enterprises in Yiwu have resumed work. Yiwu Port, railway ports, bonded logistics center, international mail exchange and other platforms have also restored normal operation to ensure smooth delivery.
To meet labor needs of market and enterprises, Yiwu has issued seven measures for enterprise employment. With information of registered employees of enterprises in 2019 as reference, efforts have been made to analyze 10 major labor source regions, such as Shangqiu of Henan Province and Fuyang of Anhui Province. Special work teams have been set up and 10 working teams were sent to set «labor collaboration stations» and «labor contact stations» in regions with rich human resources and universities. Renting cars, chartering trains, offering subsidy for travel expenditure, awarding recruiting and other incentives have been offered to recruit employees as many as possible.
According to related policies, the People’s Government of Yiwu offers full subsidy of charter fees for enterprises that pick up employees from regions with rich labor resources by means of chartered bus and car-sharing among enterprises. For employees who come to Yiwu before February 22 by train and bus, they can receive subsidies to cover all their ticket fees; for those come from February 23 to 29, they can receive subsidies half of their ticket fees. For those who come back by self-drive before February 22, they can receive subsidies equivalent to corresponding train or bus ticket fees; for those who come back from February 23 to 29, the subsidies will be halved.
For senior employees who come back with new labors, after confirmation of enterprises in Yiwu, they can also enjoy the above-mentioned subsidy policy. Job seekers who come to Yiwu for the first time can enjoy three days of free accommodation. Employees of major enterprises and regions will be picked up by special bus, train, and carriage arranged by the government, and all fees will be covered by Yiwu Municipal Government.
From February 9 to 17:00 of February 17, a total of some 120,000 people have returned to Yiwu. In Yiwu, work resumption rate of foreign trade enterprises with annual revenue of over 10 million U.S dollars, e-commerce enterprises with annual revenue of over 100 million yuan, and industrial enterprises with annual revenue from main business exceeding 20 million yuan is 89.6 percent, 84 percent and 83.7 percent, respectively. (Edited by Duan Jing, duanjing@xinhua.org)