Govt asks local authorities to reopen commercial, circulation sectors

China will promote orderly business resumption in commercial and circulation sectors to bring back and unleash consumption potential temporarily held up by the COVID-19 outbreak, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Local governments should guide and urge companies in these industries to fully resume operations on the precondition of implementing sufficient prevention and control measures, said a circular jointly unveiled by the Ministry of Commerce and the National Development and Reform Commission on Monday.

Commercial and circulation businesses are mainly formed by firms in the wholesale, retail, hotel, catering, housekeeping, home appliance repair, goods distribution, auction and beauty industries.

For businesses that have not opened yet, local authorities should provide assistance to help them restart businesses as soon as possible, said the document.

Under the policy, local governments at low-risk provinces must not postpone the work resumption by means of examination and administrative approval. In addition to Hubei and Beijing, local governments in provinces with medium-risk, must take effective virus prevention and control measures to organize orderly work resumption.

Efforts should be made to optimize domestic market supply, raise the competitive power of domestic products and services and upgrade the infrastructure for new types of consumption such as warehouses, digital and cold chain logistics networks, said the circular.