The Shanghai municipal government has announced 22 favorable policies to help maintain the strong momentum in economic recovery of the city. The 22 policies will boost market demand, stabilize growth, inject more vitality into market entities and further improve the business environment, said Wu Qing, Shanghai’s Executive Vice Mayor. Industries hard hit by the resurgent Covid-19 cases, including culture, tourism, sports, exhibitions, advertising and civil aviation, will likely benefit the most, observers said. Organizers holding economic and technology fairs in Shanghai this year will be granted a maximum CNY1 million subsidy each, said Wu. The Shanghai government will also provide CNY100,000 to CNY300,000 as incentives to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are recognized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) as niche-sector leaders with a high market share and strong innovation capacity.
To nurture technology innovation, the city will reward key high-tech companies a maximum CNY500,000 each. The government’s fiscal subsidy for technology upgrades of major projects in key areas has been raised to CNY100 million, according to Zhang Hongtao, Chief Engineer of the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Informatization. Companies are encouraged to enter emerging sectors like the metaverse, green transformation and smart devices, in order to help Shanghai realize high-quality economic growth, said Zhang. The processing time of export tax rebates will be further shortened while the efficiency of Customs clearance should be improved in order to stabilize trade, said Zhang Guohua, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce.
This is the third time this year that Shanghai has introduced supportive measures to stimulate economic growth. The first 21 measures were rolled out in late March and another 50 measures were announced in late May. As a result, the average added value of industrial companies with annual sales revenue of at least CNY20 million each rose 16.1% year-on-year in August. The value of total imports and exports of the city surged 15.8% year-on-year to approach CNY415 billion. The total retail sales of consumer goods also gained 2.5% year-on-year while fixed asset investment increased 9.9% year-on-year, the China Daily reports.
