Chongqing--“We have a very strong confidence in our business development in Southwest China!” said Zhang Hui, Vice President of Operations of Linamar in Asia. Linamar is a leading supplier to the automotive markets in the world. It set up a factory in Chongqing in 2016. Since then, it has played an important role in improving the automotive supplying chain capability of Chongqing. During the time of China’s Two Sessions, iChongqing had an interview with Zhang Hui.

Focus on China’s Two Sessions

Zhang said that as a foreign automotive company, Linamar in Chongqing pays attention to the new policies rolled out by the central government to support foreign investment and foreign companies. Moreover, the Chongqing Municipal People's Government has released new plans and policies to further expand Chongqing’s automotive industry in the 14th Five-Year Plan.

Catch up with eastern coastal areas

“We notice that in recent years the Chongqing government has lots of measures to improve its business environment and rolled out lots of policies to encourage companies to develop their businesses in Chongqing. And the business environment here gets better and better.” Zhang Hui said. In his opinion, many aspects of the business environment in Chongqing have already caught up with and even in some parts surpassed that of the eastern coastal areas.

Regarding policies issued by the Chongqing government to support foreign companies, according to Zhang Hui, as a foreign company in Chongqing, Linamar has received many beneficial policies, including incentives and subsidies from the local government. Especially, the company has gained preferential policies from the government to support its innovations and digitalization. Last year, Linamar obtained the high-tech enterprise certificate. For that, it received the government’s subsidies.

Effective government measures

Last year, when the Covid-19 had hit the world economy a lot, Linamar in Chongqing had not been impacted too much thanks to effective measures of government both at central and local levels to help companies to reduce the losses and overcome difficulties in the pandemic, according to Zhang Hui.

Although the production was closed for a short time in February due to the Covid-19, under the local government's help, Linamar quickly recovered its production line. Zhang Hui said with the quick recovery of the Chinese economy and the rebound of China’s automotive industry, the sales of the plant last year exceeded what they had budgeted, and the performance exceeded what they had expected.