Seek Opportunities out of Risks, Prioritize Pillar Industries, Fulfil Responsibilities while Overcoming Difficulties in Progress—Interview with Wang Kai, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Jilin Provincial Committee and Secretary of the CPC Changchun Municipal Committee 

In the first half of 2020, the growth of Changchun’s GDP stood at 1.2%, 2.8 percentage points higher than that of the whole country, the amount of utilized foreign capitals increased 37%, and 150,000 new market entities were put on record. Confronted with the pressures caused by the change of economic gear and the impacts of the COVID-19, Changchun as an old industrial base is seeking opportunities out of risks and forging ahead in difficulties while showing a strong, upward trend of vitality in the implementation of “six stabilities” and “six guarantees”. Wang Kai, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Jilin Provincial Committee and Secretary of the CPC Changchun Municipal Committee, accepted an interview with Xinhua News Agency. 

Protect Industrial Chain and Realize Steady Growth of Pillar Industries  

In June, the industrial output value of enterprises above designated size of Changchun City amounted to RMB89.96 billion, an increase of 37%. “The key to stabilizing economic growth of Changchun City as an old industrial base lies in having a good first-hand start, taking an active initiative, adhering to prioritizing leading enterprises in the industrial chain and focusing on the core in the supply chain,” said Wang Kai.  

On February 10, the factory of FAW Jiefang in Changchun City resumed production, with highly skilled workers arranged on duty for the first batch of heavy trucks for this year. In FAW-VW, the welding workshop of car factory 1 became busy again on the first day of work resumption. The engine workshop of powertrain division started working around the clock, and the workers went back to work in three different shifts. 

“Automobile industry is a pillar of force driving the economic development of Changchun City. In terms of ensuring the stability of industrial chain and supply chain, we insist on the principle of ‘grasping the big but not letting the small go’. Firstly, we have done the best to stabilize the production and operation of key enterprises,” Wang Kai said, “During the resumption of work and production, Changchun adopted a daily scheduling for FAW Group, a weekly scheduling for such enterprises at RMB10 billion level as CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles and Continental Automotive Electronics, and launched a service package for the top 100 key industrial enterprises in terms of output value while arranging regular visits, providing preferential policies to help deal with their difficulties.” 

Before FAW Group went back to work, all competent departments of Changchun City had established an intercommunication mechanism with several hundred auto parts enterprises to follow the latest information on epidemic prevention and control, solve key problems, and prepare for the overall resumption of the industry. 

“We have been paying close attentions to the supply of spare parts for key industries such as automobile and rail transit equipment, with special teams sent to different places of the country to coordinate for procurement,” Wang Kai said, “In the field of finance, support has also been given to FAW Group to “grant credits” to small and medium-sized supporting enterprises to pay for their purchase of spare parts. When enterprises in industrial chain have sufficient funds, supply chain will remain stable, which in turn will energize economic growth.” 

Under the background of industrial recession in the first half of this year , FAW sold 1.631 million vehicles, up 2.3% year on year, which promoted the ranking of added value of the city up to the second among the among the 15 sub provincial cities. 

An increasing number of social capitals have been invested in the ongoing Changchun International Automobile City. The amount of investment on 7 complete vehicle projects including intelligent factory of Hongqi totals RMB19.1 billion, and that on 18 key parts projects including Linglong Tires is RMB24.4 billion. From January to July, the investment on fixed assets in Changchun City went up by 9.2%, 10.8 percentage points higher than the national average. 

Optimize Business Environment, Stabilize Employment, Market Entities against Recession  

In July this year, the total number of market entities in Changchun City exceeded 1 million, a year-on-year increase of 17.6%. “The service market players were hardest hit by the epidemic. The core of our work in implementing ‘six stabilities’ and ‘six guarantees’ is to make enterprises survive and lower thresholds for ordinary people to star their businesses,” said Wang Kai. 

All government departments at all levels are striving to keep all enterprises informed with the preferential policies at the earliest possible time the “first night” after arrival from the central government, ” said Wang Kai, adding, “Once the policies are launched, such measure channel as“10,000 people for 10,000 enterprises” will be taken to arrange all competent officials at different levels to provide publicity and guidance to help solve the difficulties of all enterprises involved. Up to now, a total of RMB1.218 billion has been returned to enterprises for stabilizing job posts, RMB31 billion for tax reduction and rebate and RMB3.897 billion for reduction and exemption of social insurance.” 

“Changchun is also one of the first cities to issue consumption coupons for which RMB200 million had been provided since late April, which in turn boosted RMB1 billion consumption,” said Wang Kai. 

In the meantime, Changchun continued optimizing business environment, with the whole process of electronic registration of market entities adopted in an all-round way to provide enterprises with the service of “multi-type, multi-channel and multi-experience” for registration. “The examination and approval time for the establishment of an enterprise has now been shortened to less than 10 minutes and that of business license issuance to less than 30 minutes,” said Wang Kai. 

A few days ago, Zhang Rui, a local citizen, started applying to set up a kindergarten. Due to complicated procedures, Zhang turned to Erdao District Government Service Center for consultation. After making clear Zhang’s request, the official on duty called the authorities of market supervision and education who answered Zhang’s questions through video and voice communication. On the same day, Zhang managed to submit all documents as required. 

To promote entrepreneurship and employment, Changchun has also lowered the application thresholds for small and medium-sized enterprises’ guaranty loans and meanwhile broadened the scope of the same kind for individuals. In the first half of this year, 52,000 new jobs were created in the city, and the number of people in rural areas who transferred to work reached 750,000 times. 

Ensure Food Security and Strive to Lead in Agricultural Modernization 

The State Council approved the transfer of governance of Gongzhuling, a county-level city previously governed by City, to Changchun City. At present, Gongzhuling, Nong’an, Dehui and Yushu under the governance of Changchun City are heavyweight grain producers raking in the leading position in China. “Changchun was known as an old industrial base before but now also as a big grain producer. Among the top ten grain producing counties in China, there are four in Changchun City. Food security has now been put in an important, strategic position for us,” said Wang Kai. 

“Since earlier this year, we have switched our focus to epidemic prevention and control and farming preparation so as to minimize the impacts of the epidemic on agriculture to secure the foundation for the stability of economic performance of the whole city,” said Wang Kai, adding, “It is extremely important to ensure the stability of agricultural development against the challenges and risks of the epidemic. For the whole year, the farming area of grain crops is predicted to reach 24.038 million mu, an increase of 513000 mu over the same period of last year.” 

The purchase and transportation of seeds and fertilizers were not affected by the epidemic thanks to early preparation. One day in late February, the warehouse of Huaxing Professional Farmers Cooperatives in Gongzhuling became busy. Zhang Bin, head of the cooperatives, told the workers to load and deliver the compound fertilizers for rice growing to all farming families before 7pm. The cooperatives has 2,137 members with 517 hectares of land under trusteeship and circulation.  

“If Changchun wants to be a pioneer in agricultural modernization, the process of agricultural industrialization must be accelerated,” Wang Kai said, “The cultivation and expansion of leading agricultural enterprises shall be put in a prominent position so as to support them to increase their sizes, expand their market shares and shape their brands, and thus make it possible for all small-scale, industrialized and modernized producers co-exit and progress together,” said Wang Kai. 

In early May, agricultural machines started roaring on the farmland in the surrounding areas of Changchun City. In recent years, Changchun has made great efforts to promote land circulation, popularize conservation tillage, improve agricultural mechanization, implement the principle of “store grains in land and store grains in technology”, and strive to protect the black land, “giant panda in arable land”. 

The corn is growing healthy in the farmland of Jijia Sub-district of Jiutai District, Changchun City. “This is the corn grown with conservation tillage techniques,” said Zhang Fengcai, a heavyweight planter of grains, adding, “Conservation tillage can increase production by storing water and preserving soil moisture, and reduce the use of 200 kg of fertilizer per hectare.” 

“The new round of revitalization of Northeast China is underway in a comprehensive, all-round way. We should speed up the integration of primary, secondary and tertiary industries and the integration of urban and rural areas, do a good job in the construction of the three major systems of agriculture, production and management, and thus strive to take the lead in agricultural modernization,” said Wang Kai.