On April 27th, CCI FRANCE CHINE attended an online meeting hosted by the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), the meeting was led by Mr. CHEN Chunjiang, Director of the foreign investment department. Together with the Ministry of Commerce were present: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Health Commission, the Ministry of Transport and other departments of the MOFCOM. During the meeting, we were able to express the following major concerns raised by our members: -
Resumption of work and production for companies in Shanghai, -
Production, staff availability, logistic and supply chain disruptions, -
Ways to strengthen the foreign investment confidence, incentives to retain foreign companies, foreign employees and expats, high-level professionals, top management working in Shanghai, -
Support policies on transportation, economy, financial services, tax, rental loss and foreign trade companies, etc., -
Support at all scale of companies, MNC, SME, etc., -
Border opening issues, visa issues, policies related to personal and family reunion, -
Finally, questions about information transmission. Mr. CHEN Chunjiang, Director of the foreign investment department of the MOFCOM pointed out the measures recently released by the central government: -
A special group dedicated to logistics (物流保通保畅工作小组) has been established to improve the current logistics and transportation on a national basis. A unified pass for cities like Tianjin, Hebei, and Shanghai etc. will be issued to facilitate the transportation inter-city. -
Regarding the resumption of work and production, Shanghai government has already published a “white-list” for companies who meet the requirements, and the list will be extended in an orderly way to more companies in order to ensure that the whole supply chain get back to normal. -
The government will make an effort on information transparency and communication, especially to enhance the cooperation between the government and the companies. Shanghai has already begun to share information in several languages about all news related to COVID-19 epidemic and other relevant information to foreign-funded enterprises and foreigners. -
A new department to help foreign companies in China, called "Working group for Foreign Investment Project”, (重点外资项目工作专班) has been recently established by the MOFCOM. This group will focus on the needs of Foreign Investment enterprises in current situation and to timely understand and promote the solution to various difficulties and problems encountered by foreign-funded enterprises and key foreign-funded projects. Till now the group has successfully solved about 1000 cases encountered by foreign companies. A hotline has been set up to answer the questions of foreign companies who are meeting difficulties:
Hotline: (86）010-85093600
(Operating days: Monday to Friday (excepted for official holidays) from 8:30am to 11:30am and from 2:00pm to 5:00pm)
Public email: fdiservice@mofcom.gov.cn All the questions raised by our members have been submitted to MOFCOM and other related department of the government, we hope to receive the answer soon by the related department of the central government. CCI FRANCE CHINE will stay in touch with the Ministry of Commerce on a daily basis to exchange the information between the government and our members, please feel free to contact us if you have any query. CCI FRANCE CHINE will do its utmost to support its French businesses members and feedback the issues that truly matter to them to the right people. |
