The Hunan government recently rolled out ten policies to support Zhangjiajie’s epidemic prevention and control, as well as build up its confidence at present, whilst improving areas of weakness in the long term.

Financial support

 
The provincial government will coordinate and allocate 530 million CNY of subsidies, including transfer payments for equalizing access to basic public services, whilst provide rewards and subsidies to ensure basic funding for county-level governments, and a total sum of 10 million CNY will be used for general transfer payments for epidemic prevention and control.

 
The government will give preferential treatment to support Zhangjiajie’s development when arranging local government general debt securities in 2021. A 2-billion-CNY local government special debt security will be added, to support the projects related to infrastructure, public services, and utilities.

 
A 20-million-CNY provincial safe production and emergency fund will be implemented, to assist those in difficulties due to the epidemic during the transitional period, and afford comprehensive expenditures of purchase, lease, and transport of emergency supplies and facilities.

 
Preferential services, including free communication flows and calls, will be provided for the frontline working staff for epidemic prevention and control.

Targeted preferential policies

The provincial government will add 30 million CNY for infrastructure construction and important water resource development in its budget, to help support Zhangjiajie to coordinate its finance and expenditures related to epidemic prevention and control.

 
Until the end of this year, service providers in Zhangjiajie who are unable to afford electric charges due to difficulties in business can have their electricity supplies maintained with payment in arrear; industrial and commercial electricity users implementing the two-part tariff system can enjoy reduction or exemption of their capacity or demand tariff.

 
The policy supports enterprises by increasing credit aid; cutting interest rate; credit and loan extension; and, reduction or exemption of overdue interest. The benefited enterprise include: businesses of wholesale and retail, accommodation, and catering, logistics and transportation, and culture and tourism, which are greatly affected by the epidemic; and, the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), which have bright prospects in development but in difficulty for the time being.
Policy support will be also given to banks to stabilize the increase of loans in Zhangjiajie this year.

 
Build up confidence at present

A 20-million-CNY tourism development fund and a 20-million-CNY modern service development fund will be added to help Zhangjiajie resume the tourism industry after the epidemic.

 
This will aid in supporting Zhangjiajie to undertake provincial cultural and tourism promotion events after the epidemic.

 
The provincial government will coordinate and arrange special funds in its budget to support public health and relief projects in Zhangjiajie, to strengthen identified areas of weakness in epidemic prevention and control as well as public hygiene.

 
Fortify emergency communication utilities for epidemic prevention and control to ensure smooth communication and in-time response.

 
Reinforce the communication network infrastructure construction. This year the number of newly-built 5G stations in Zhangjiajie will be increased by 20% over the original plan.

Prevent people from returning to poverty

The provincial government will coordinate and arrange special development funds for western Hunan regions, to support tourism infrastructure, relocation and assistance, and rewards and subsidies to key industries in Zhangjiajie.

 
The central government will invest in pilot projects of providing jobs instead of giving grants in its budget. Preferential measures will be given to Zhangjiajie for three consecutive years, to provide priority to those who have just emerged from poverty but whose position is far from secure, and those on the verge of poverty who can fall back in again easily. This aims to prevent people from falling into or back into poverty because of the epidemic.

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Pang Yuehui

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn