Foreign trade and investment are important driving forces for Chongqing to build itself into an exemplary city of opening-up in inland China and to boost the open economy. The outbreak of COVID-19 has brought a severe impact on the foreign trade and investment of China, and Chongqing is no exception. Therefore, continuous maintenance of the industrial supply chain and stabilization of Chongqing’s foreign trade and investment are crucial for the city’s economic and social development this year.

The city staged a symposium on the development of foreign trade and foreign-funded enterprises on March 31. At the symposium, relevant departments and businesses expressed their views on the development of foreign trade and investment in Chongqing this year. On the whole, these enterprises are still optimistic about the city’s investment environment.

Firm confidence in investing in Chongqing

“Despite the severe epidemic, the company management still has strong confidence in investing in Chongqing,” said Xia Qian, the Chinese person in charge of AT&S (Chongqing). She added that the CPC Chongqing Municipal Committee and Chongqing Municipal People’s Government quickly issued a series of support policies in response to the epidemic after its outbreak. The city’s support and concern tided its enterprises over and helped them to achieve rapid work and production resumption.

As the Chinese person in charge of SK hynix Semiconductor (Chongqing) Ltd., Tian Yu introduced that SK hynix’s investment in Chongqing and the whole China enables it to see the huge economic vitality and market stability in the country as well as quality services and good business environment in Chongqing.

Smooth work and production resumption of enterprises

“In early February, we became the first in the country to launch an online questionnaire survey for the 435 foreign-invested enterprises in Chongqing. We sorted out the common difficulties and problems faced by them and made relevant reports.” Zhang Yingxian, President of Chongqing Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment, said that only when they understand the needs of enterprises and satisfy them could they vigorously promote the resumption of work and production.

At present, the work and production resumption of Chongqing’s enterprises are going smoothly. More than 2,800 employees of Chongqing Transsion Technology Co., Ltd. have been involved in the company’s production resumption, accounting for 90% of its total. They can produce 160,000 feature phones and 15,000 smartphones per day.

Striving to achieve the annual goals

“A comprehensive analysis drew the conclusion that the impact of the epidemic on Chongqing won’t last long, and the basic situation of foreign trade and investment in the city remains good,” said Zhang Zhikui, Director of Chongqing Municipal Commission of Commerce. He pointed out that Chongqing is firm and purposeful to maintain the industrial supply chain with greater efforts and stabilize foreign trade and investment with a view to striving for the achievement of its annual goals.

Zhang added that the epidemic prompted the transformation and upgrading of enterprises though it badly hit foreign trade and investment in Chongqing.

Xiong Xiaohua, General Manager of DUCAR, introduced that the company is actively promoting the upgrading of intelligent manufacturing and the transformation of traditional general power machinery, so as to strengthen the brand and channel construction.