How is Coronavirus affecting your business? - Notices & Policies
2020 has witnessed a bumpy start with the overwhelming Coronavirus striking us unexpectedly, especially at the start of the Lunar New Year when many of us travel around the country. In merely three weeks, Wuhan city was locked down, with virtually the whole of China coming to a standstill, with self-quarantine and only critical services available to the public. Whilst the Guangdong province has postponed the date back to work to 10th February, some other provinces are waiting to see the extent of the spread still – but one thing for certain is that all businesses have been affected and most have been suggested to close down until further notice. During this period however, the government has announced some incentives and subsidies for businesses to help get by through this delicate time, and we’re seeing communities work collectively and provide free services for each other, allowing many company to resume to work as much as possible.
To have a closer look at how this Coronavirus has affected different industries and what has been launched to facilitate members and our business community, BritCham Guangdong has collected official notices and supporting policies from the government for your reference. (Most links are in Chinese.)
Education and Training Industry
All schools are required to postpone their opening dates until March.
All education institutions are not allowed to provide offline services.
Source: Department of Education of Guangdong Province
All exams and events are cancelled or postponed during the Coronavirus outbreak – Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. Hence, all IELTS, TOFEL and GRE exams in February have been cancelled; TEM 4, TEM8, university entrance exams and other exams have also been postponed.
Source: Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China
Schools and education institutions are advised not to start teaching new courses online in advance to the regular opening date in response to the coronavirus.
Source: Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China
The digital education platform 粤教翔云 has been utilized to help schools to provide online learning.
Source: 南方日报
Market Trend
While offline learning is not available, lots of schools and institution have resorted to online learning. Not only has the authority has provided 22 online learning platforms, but also enterprises have also provided their own free online courses and services to teachers and public. Education institutions can also turn their physical education materials and services into online ones.
The available platforms to facilitate your businesses include: Tecent Classroom (腾讯课堂), Zoom (千聊)，DingTalk (钉钉), NetEase Cloud Classroom (网易云课堂), Vhall (微吼), Bilibili and more.
Given the current situation, BritCham Guangdong events have all been postponed, however there is a plan for some of our events to also be held online at some point, including the popular Training Open Day. Stay tuned for our pivot to upcoming online webinars.
Real Estate Industry
The Guangzhou Real Estate Leasing Association has published a Rent Reduction Initiative to suggest landlords to waive or reduce rental fees for a few months to help businesses and individuals to overcome this difficult time.
Source: The Guangzhou Real Estate Leasing Association
Human Resources
Outline of how companies should pay their employees during the extra 10-day holiday.
Source: 广东省人力资源和社会保障厅
Food and Beverage
Gatherings such as dining events and food tasting are forbidden in order to prevent the virus from spreading.
Source: Guangdong Adminstration for Market Regulation
Internet Industry
Market Trend
Due to this outbreak, millions of people began working from home, which has boosted the usage of videoconference calls and many downloads from VC providers. On 3rd February, 200 million people started to work remotely. This huge demand has called for more service providers with many offering free services during this week. Also, professional services providers have started to consider providing webinars to promote their business – such webinars and online engagements are also being planned within BritCham Guangdong.
The available platforms include: Zoom, TalkLine, Tecent Meeting (腾讯会议)，DingTalk (钉钉)，Huawei WeLink, Wechat Work (企业微信)
Image via: 36氪
Immigration and
Exit-Entry Administration
Questions and Answers by National Immigration Administration Concerning Immigration and Exit-Entry Administration during the Period of Prevention and Control on Pneumonia caused by Novel Coronavirus.
Source: FESCO
Governmental Supporting
Policies to Business
[Latest] Guangdong government’s 20 policies to help companies resume their function, including free rent, financial support, allowing social insurance payment deferment and tax declaration deferment, helping companies with medical supply purchase and so on so forth.
Source: 广东共青团
[Latest] Guangzhou’s 15 policies to reduce the burden of SME and individual enterprises, which include financial support, reduction of financing costs, tax reduction or exemption, rent reduction, e-commerce fees reduction and so on.
Source: 广州政务
[Latest] Shenzhen’s 16 policies to help with affected enterprises including free rent, sewage processing fee refund, electricity expense reduction or exemption, four trillions of policy incentives, great support to public transport, increase in employee training subsidy and more.
Source: 深圳发布
Guangdong Provincial Tax Service, State Taxation Administration has announced that deferred social insurance payment will not be fined.
Source: Guangdong Provincial Tax Service, State Taxation Administration
Imported donated supplies to help with the Coronavirus situation will be tax-free, according to State Taxation Administration.
Source: State Taxation Administration
Last week the British chambers of commerce in China surveyed our members on the impact of the novel coronavirus pneumonia on their operations in China. The survey was conducted between Wednesday 5th February and Friday 7th February and received responses from 126 British companies.
The British Chamber of Commerce in China published the survey report, which finds that:
1. The coronavirus outbreak has caused severe disruptions to the operations of British business in China.
2. These issues are being widely felt by companies in both goods and services industries and among businesses across the country.
3. Most companies expect business to return to normal by either the end of February (23%) or by the end of March (31%).
4. Almost all businesses are implementing working from home and 37% are allowing for flexible working hours.
5. Two in five British businesses have already provided support to the government’s efforts to contain the virus in Wuhan and Hubei.
Let us know
How is this Coronavirus affecting your business, your industry and your daily life and what more do your want to know? Please feel free to share your views in the comment section. BritCham Guangdong is here to help our members and community to join the dots. Together, we shall walk through this tough time.
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