China's centrally administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have played a vital role in the nation's battle against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak and its shock on the economy, an expert and former senior commerce official has said.
Wei Jianguo, vice chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges and former vice minister of commerce, said the early production resumption at central SOEs has injected confidence in China's anti-virus fight and showcased China's institutional advantages.
More than 90 percent of the approximately 48,000 subsidiaries of China's 96 central SOEs had returned to work as of late February to support nationwide epidemic control, official data showed.
Wei said the central SOEs have gone all out to fight the COVID-19 outbreak and safeguard the national economy and people's livelihood, citing efforts to ensure steady gas and oil supplies during the outbreak by state-owned oil and gas producers and refiners including PetroChina and Sinopec.
The central SOEs have taken the lead in meeting surging demand for medical supplies and protective gear, swiftly shifting production lines to essential materials like masks and disinfectants and contributing significantly to the total production capacity, according to Wei.
Since the epidemic broke out, the central SOEs have raced to boost the production of melt-blown nonwoven fabric, used in the filtering layer in the middle part of a mask, whose daily production capacity of the fabric had reached 26 tonnes as of early March.
Wei also noted that the quick work resumption at central SOEs has boosted factory activities at tens of thousands of smaller firms on their production chains and helped maintain the stability of the global supply chain.
For instance, by commencing a number of new electric power projects, China Huadian Corporation is expected to drive production at nearly 1,000 private firms in related sectors such as power generation and transmission, as well as insulating materials and cable manufacturing, he said.
Wei said he expected that the central SOEs would continue to play a strong role in tapping China's economic potential and achieving China's economic and social development goals in the future.
