Favorable restart policies to treat foreign, domestic companies equally

Foreign and domestic companies will be treated equally by favorable polices as China has taken a consortium of measures to help firms resume work, the nation's top industry regulator said on Friday.

Wang Jiangping, vice minister of industry and information technology, said although the epidemic has some short-term negative impact on the economy, the country has rolled out measures to help firms resume operations as well as restore supply chains.

"The fundamentals of China's long-term sound economic growth remain unchanged while the COVID-19 outbreak is generally controllable," Wang said.

Wang made the comments at a press conference in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province and epicenter of the outbreak.

Accelerated efforts will be made to collaborate with big companies and related supply chains to resume operations first, as the move will play an important role in driving small and medium-sized firms in resuming work as well.