Xinhua Silk Road: Changshu intensifies efforts to further optimize business environment

BEIJING, Aug. 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A charter plane sent by Changshu municipal government brought back 80 Japanese employees on August 8 to resume work.

Located in the hinterland of the Yangtze River Delta and as an important node where Yangtze River Economic Belt and the coastal economic development belt meet, Changshu of east China's Jiangsu Province is now home to more than 200 Japanese-funded companies, with a total investment of 6.9 billion U.S dollars. Changshu has been stepping up efforts to further boost its business environment and better serve foreign-funded enterprises.

At present, Changshu sees total investment of more than 4 billion U.S. dollars by Japanese-funded enterprises in its high-tech zone with accumulated registered capital reaching 1.77 billion U.S. dollars. 

Knowing that Japanese employees in Changshu cannot return to work due to relevant epidemic prevention measures and expensive plane tickets, Changshu municipal government made extensive efforts to communicate with superior departments, and applied for the charter flight to take Japanese employees back.

In a bid to reduce the risks of the epidemic spreading and protect the safety of passengers, Japanese employees underwent temperature checks three times before departure and needed to undergo a 14-day quarantine after landing in Changshu.

The move not only builds an air channel to help enterprises resume work and production timely, but also reduces their financial burden thanks to cheaper tickets of charter flights. 

"In the process of epidemic prevention and control, I have seen the Chinese government's stringent control measures and advanced management level, and also felt the Changshu municipal government's strong support for market entities", said a Japanese employee with Sumitomo Rubber (China) Co., Ltd.

In the first six months of 2020, Changshu's GDP inched up 0.7% year on year to 108.5 billion yuan amid signs of wider economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis, and its actual use of foreign capital amounted to 895 million U.S. dollars, a spike of 104.8% from that in the same period of last year.

Besides, Changshu witnessed 161 new key projects signed in the first half of 2020 with a total investment of 55.28 billion yuan, as the city has ramped up support for project investment through cloud signing activities.

Among the contracted projects, seven projects had received foreign investment of more than 100 million U.S. dollars each. 

Original link: https://en.imsilkroad.com/p/315408.html

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