Policy support a must to weather virus

Since its outbreak and spread, the novel coronavirus has aroused concerns in society.

It is important to note that the fight against the epidemic is not only a fight for the sake of public health, but also for maintaining economic vitality. So, the country should not only take effective measures to arrest the epidemic as soon as possible, but also allocate resources to minimize the adverse economic impact it is having.

Reduced transportation and consumption, resulting from fears of the infectious epidemic, will inevitably have an impact on economic growth, especially in such sectors as catering, tourism, transportation and retail. However, enterprises and consumers have risen to the occasion and updated their business models. For example, online shopping has increased further and more and more people in cities are inclined to take delivery of goods themselves, reducing the chain of contact. Online movies, games and other such industries, too, are likely to spy new development opportunities.

The government should provide more policy support for these emerging economic channels, improve the investment environment and facilitate a more convenient flow of capital into these new areas to ensure their development by establishing a standardized regulatory system.

In recent years, the government has remained committed to implementing structural tax cuts for enterprises to improve their efficiency at the micro level. It has specifically tried to extend the benefits of tax cuts to small and medium-sized enterprises. In light of the coronavirus outbreak, the government should further implement tax cuts for SMEs and introduce new measures to help sectors most affected by the epidemic to overcome bad times.

It is important that the government take effective measures to strengthen weak links and enhance the confidence of enterprises and society, thus providing them with a guarantee to deal with the epidemic and cushioning them against subsequent adverse effects.

The fight against the novel coronavirus requires the government to not only intervene decisively, but also refrain from overreacting in a way that causes other problems. Only by making full use of the market mechanism and properly allocating resources can the country eliminate the epidemic and maintain healthy economic growth.