Since the outbreak of the COVID-19, President Xi Jinping has made arrangements on coordinating between the prevention and control of COVID-19 and economic and social development, and has given instructions on keeping the fundamentals of foreign trade and foreign investment stable. Under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee, the CPC group of CCPIT, leading its members and cadres, put itself at the front line of epidemic prevention and control, performed their duties in light of the overall situation, focused on the central tasks of the party and the state, fully implemented the arrangements on coordinating the prevention and control of COVID-19 and economic and social development, and spared no efforts to stabilize foreign trade and foreign investment. CCPIT remained true to our original aspiration, and fulfilled the tasks given during this challenging period.
Seek the correct political stance and specify the epidemic prevention and control efforts
Go where there is epidemic, fight it till it perishes. The CPC group of CCPIT, having enhanced their consciousness of maintaining political integrity, thinking in big-picture terms, following the leadership core, and keeping in alignment with the central Party leadership, strengthened their confidence in the socialist path, theory, system and culture. The group takes epidemic prevention and control as the most important political task and shoulders the main responsibility, flying the party flag high on the front line of the anti-epidemic war.
Shoulder political responsibility and perfect the system for the COVID-19 prevention and control. CCPIT promptly set up a leading group for epidemic prevention and control, with party group Secretary and CCPIT Chairperson Gao Yan serving as the leader, to strengthen the overall leadership of the party. CCPIT convened the 16th meeting and the special meeting of the party group, and the meeting of the leading group to promptly communicated to the members the important speeches, instructions of President Xi Jinping and the spirit of the Party Central Committee and the State Council. CCPIT will keep a close eye on the spreading of the epidemic and deploy the system of the COVID-19 prevention and control. CCPIT quickly established the staff daily report system and made the lists of prevention and control personnel and locations to ensure there was no blind spot or loophole in the large network of epidemic prevention and control. Even during the Spring Festival holiday, the party members of CCPIT still took the lead and stayed at their posts, conducting online command day and night. They supervised the prevention and control efforts in real time, check the loopholes, point out the deficiencies, put forward requirements to the government, and solve the problems of enterprises. All party members and cadres were mobilized to carry forward the spirit of fearlessness and selfless dedication. The party members of CCPIT stand up and demonstrate in the domestic and global anti epidemic efforts, and remained true to the original aspiration and kept the mission firmly in mind with practical actions.
CCPIT utilized its unique advantages and make every effort to support global anti-epidemic efforts. China faced serious shortage of epidemic prevention materials at the beginning of the outbreak, the leading party group of CCPIT organized overseas representative offices and CCOIC to find and raise materials and overcame difficulties to transport them to China. The overseas representative offices immediately took the initiative and responded to the call of CCPIT. They set up a "Wuhan Jiayou" match-making platform to help Wuhan purchase epidemic prevention materials; and organized domestic enterprises to match with foreign suppliers 381 times, and mobilized 566 Chinese-funded institutions to donate epidemic prevention materials, which equivalent to 160 million yuan, to hard-hit areas. Members of CCOIC donated materials and money that equivalent to 10.9 billion yuan. After the Covid-19 broke out overseas, the overseas representative offices took action in the local anti-epidemic battlefield, sending multilingual anti-epidemic manuals to the host countries, organizing and coordinating 354 Chinese-funded enterprises to donate anti-epidemic materials, equaling to 140 million yuan, to foreign countries, and helping foreign institutions purchase 28 million yuan of anti-epidemic materials from home.
CCPIT responded to the call of the state and made every effort to maintain the security and stability of the capital. On March 9, CCPIT received a notice from Beijing Municipality that the New China International Exhibition Center（NCIEC）will be requisitioned as a hub for inbound passengers from countries with high incidence of epidemic at the capital airport. The leading party group of CCPIT acted quickly to establish the emergency mechanism, set up a task force, held meetings to ensure that the venue could be ready in the shortest time and the 24-7 uninterrupted service could be provided. From the establishment of the distribution center to the suspension of operation at 24:00 on March 29, with zero complaint and zero infection, the NCIEC successfully transferred more than 42000 inbound passengers, which was praised and affirmed by all parties.
Enhance the responsibility and stabilize the foreign trade and investment
Stabilizing foreign trade and foreign investment is crucial to the economic and social development. CCPIT party group has thoroughly studied and implemented the spirit of President Xi Jinping, followed the decisions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, and immediately set up a group and formulated ten plans of action for stabilizing foreign trade and foreign investment. CCPIT has been using systematic thinking, professional practices, standing book management, project promotion and other methods to promote the implementation of various measures to minimize the impact of the epidemic on foreign trade and investment.
CCPIT took multiple measures to stabilize foreign trade fundamentals. 105 commercial certification institutions of the trade promotion system have issued more than 7000 force majeure certificates to enterprises, involving a total contract value of more than 700 billion yuan. Those institutions used online system, telephone and other tools to reply more than 2 million times of enterprise consultation, which promoted mutual understanding between upstream and downstream customers in accordance with regulations and stabilized the overseas market. CCPIT built a digital exhibition service platform, on which China-Latin America (Mexico) International Trade Digital Expo (Digital Trade) was successfully held in mid to late April. It became the first large-scale international exhibition held in China during the epidemic. More than 2,200 enterprises from 28 provinces, regions and cities participated in the exhibition, and more than 46,000 people from 11 countries attended the exhibition, which resulted in a batch of trade orders. CCPIT supported the orderly export of qualified anti-epidemic products, and promoted match making between more than 200 domestic manufacturers and more than 40 countries in need. It held webinars on export promotion of anti-epidemic products and built a comprehensive service platform for those materials.
CCPIT optimized the business environment and attracted and stabilized enterprises. CCPIT has contacted more than 260 times with more than 80 large transnational groups such as foreign chambers and associations in China, BASF, Bayer, Daimler, etc. With dedicated personnel taking charge of each project system, CCPIT set up a mechanism to help foreign enterprises, such as American GE Healthcare and Japanese AGC company, and solve a series of problems, which are sincerely appreciated. It boosted the signing of Starbucks China's "coffee innovation park" and Premier Li Keqiang sent a congratulatory letter to the ceremony. CCPIT supported the holding of the investment promotion and exhibition invitation conference for 2019 China (Huai'an) International Food Exposition, and facilitated the signing of 10 foreign investment projects. CCPIT accelerated the establishment of the website of www.chinainvestment.com.cn and has organized the online government enterprise dialogue for foreign-funded enterprises in large regions.
CCPIT innovated service mode and helped enterprises solve difficulties. Based on the event, CCPIT has provided full chain commercial legal services for enterprises, and effectively helped them resolve disputes concerning contract performance and corporate debt in a timely manner. CCPIT set up an "express channel" to shorten the issuing time of ATA documents and help avoid the detention of import and export goods due to epidemic. CCPIT conducted online arbitration, so the parties concerned in Shanghai, Wuhan and Shenzhen could hold video court sessions. The consultation hotline of the legal support platform for cross-border trade and investment of enterprises answered about 90 thousand questions. CCPIT has opened a "express channel for epidemic prevention and control" for patent applications. It updated and released more than 190 countries (regions)’ restrictive measures, secret scripts for foreign traders to deal with the epidemic, guidelines for epidemic prevention and control, etc. The national trade promotion system has carried out nearly 300 online training programs around risk prevention, order guarantee, market stabilization, etc., and more than 200,000 foreign trade practitioners attended the training. CCPIT conducted in-depth research, held more than 70 enterprise video symposiums and more than 10 online questionnaires, forming more than 200 reports to provide reference for the decision-making of the CPC Central Committee.
Perform effectively in foreign affairs and increase trust and dispel doubts. CCPIT has expressed our views and tell the story of China's fight against the epidemic in the international business community through various forms, channels and perspectives. More than 200 international organizations and institutions, overseas chambers and associations expressed their admirations and supports by letters, calls, videos and initiatives. CCOIC sent letters to the heads of more than 340 counterparts in 142 countries and regions, seeking more international support. In response to ICC's intention to issue trade and financial guidance on China's epidemic situation, CCOIC appealed to domestic institutions to speed up processing, which urged ICC to suspend the issuance of its opinions, and maintained the international reputation of China's banking industry. Through the G20 business activities and economic and trade forum activities, the international business community has understood and recognized China's position more comprehensively, and it has become a common consensus to carry out international cooperation and build a community with a shared future for mankind.
(This signed article was published on Qizhi by the leading party group of CCPIT in May 2020)