China to increase efforts to ensure work resumes smoothly

China has made considerable progress in speeding up production, and the country will ramp up efforts to ensure the resumption of work goes smoothly to fight against the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak, the country's top economic regulator said on Wednesday.

Tang Shemin, an official from the National Development and Reform Commission, said 50 percent of enterprises above designated size in major economically developed provinces and municipalities, such as South China's Guangdong and East China's Jiangsu provinces, and Shanghai have restarted production.

Large enterprises are particularly ahead of small and medium-sized companies in terms of the resumption of work. Meanwhile, compared to downstream industries and labor-intensive enterprises, upstream participants and capital-intensive and technology-intensive companies reported a faster resumption of work, Tang noted.

Tang said during a news conference that the country is dedicated to helping companies resume work in an orderly manner. "It's a key measure to effectively contain the outbreak and maintain economic stability."

As of Monday, production capability of masks in China has been expanded to 110 percent of the normal level, according to data from the NDRC. Additionally, 80 percent of key companies in the non-ferrous metal sector have restored production, and those engaging in the refining business have reached 60 percent.

Among 37 key monitored grain and oil processing companies, 36 have restored production, NDRC data showed.

Tang said the NDRC will make a big push to resolve any issues that companies are facing, such as an insufficient number of returning workers, finance troubles and impeded logistics and transportation, especially for SMEs.

More efforts also are needed to ensure orderly resumption of work and production, urge different regions to introduce differentiated measures in line with their own conditions, speed up the orderly return of workers back to their duties, keep transportation unimpeded, and continue to waive all road tolls across the country, Tang said.