Multinationals boost presence in country

Successful measures

Business leaders said weathering the COVID-19 storm would not have been possible without prompt and decisive support from all levels of the Chinese government.

They pointed to a range of decisions that were made, including effective procedures implemented to track and deal with infections and measures taken to stabilize employment, trade and investment.

Holly Lei, China president of German chemicals company Covestro, which resumed manufacturing in the early stages of the contagion in February, said, "We greatly appreciate the efforts China has made to revitalize business activities and aid enterprises－for example, by sending masks to us at the beginning of the outbreak."

She also referred to a number of perks granted by the authorities, including preferential natural gas prices as a non-residential user, national tax relief measures to help trim costs, and a series of stimulus packages to help the company's customers on the road to recovery.

"As a result, the deep V-shaped recovery here in China is not too surprising to us," Lei said.

George Xu, CEO of Airbus China, said the aviation industry had inevitably been heavily affected by social distancing and curbs on cross-border travel. However, the measures taken by China to combat the pandemic ensured a stable and healthy rebound that was not only noteworthy globally but had helped his company recover.

"Since the National Day holiday, air passenger traffic in the domestic market has exceeded the level seen at the same time last year, and it is the only civil aviation market that has witnessed positive growth," he said.

Xu said the industry's prosperity is closely related to protecting people's livelihoods, the stability of supply chains, employment, finance and foreign trade. All these factors are in line with the government's directive to ensure six priorities and stability in six areas to guide the country's next phase of growth.

He said China's economic progress, based on development cycles and the global political and economic situation, "is bound to continue to promote a comprehensive, multi-level and diversified pattern of open cooperation… and is precisely what helps to confirm Airbus' development strategy in China."