The Information Office of　Shanghai Municipality held a press conference today (September 28). Wu Qing, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee and Executive Vice Mayor, introduced the Several Policies and Measures of Shanghai on Supporting Industries, Bolstering Market Entities and Stabilizing Growth (hereinafter referred to as 22 Measures for Stabilizing Growth). Ruan Qing, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission, Zhang Hongtao, Chief Engineer of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, Zhang Guohua, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, Guan Xiaojun, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Local Financial Regulation and Supervision, and Liu Hongbo, Chief Auditor of the Shanghai Municipal Tax Service attended the press conference and answered questions from reporters.
Since the beginning of this year, Shanghai has conscientiously implemented the important decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. At the end of March and the end of May, Shanghai has successively issued two rounds of comprehensive policies (21 Measures for　COVID-19 relief and 50 Measures for economic recovery) to help enterprises address difficulties and stabilize growth. At the end of August this year, on the basis of a national package of 33 policies to stabilize the economy, China again introduced 19 follow-up policy measures. In order to implement national policies and measures in a timely manner, strengthen the foundation of the city’s economic recovery and development, and make every effort to fight for economic recovery and revitalization, on the basis of fully listening to the appeals and suggestions of various market entities, the city has recently promogulated the Several Policies and Measures of Shanghai on Supporting Industries, Bolstering Market Entities and Stabilizing Growth (hereinafter referred to as 22 Measures for Stabilizing Growth).
1. Overall considerations
Since the promulgation of the first two rounds of policies to help enterprises address difficulties and stabilize growth, all departments and districts in the city have continued to pay close attention to the implementation of the policies. So far, more than 460 detailed implementation rules have been issued at the municipal and district levels, in a bid to alleviate the urgent needs of enterprises. Through the joint efforts of all parties, the city’s economy continued to resume its growth momentum. In August, indicators on industrial output, foreign trade, finance, fiscal revenue, and real estate achieved double-digit growth. The growth rate of investment and consumption continued to accelerate, and market expectations and confidence continued to improve. The recovery maintained positive momentum.
At the same time, surveys found that many enterprises in challenging industries still have great expectations for more optimized supporting policies. In order to continue to magnify the superposition effect of the policy mix, since mid-to-late July, in light of the new situation and scenario after Shanghai fully resumed production and living order, and after the city has earnestly implemented new policies and measures introduced by the State Council since June, especially 19 consecutive policies launched at the end of August, Shanghai has learned the useful experience and policy advice of experts and scholars from other provinces and cities, systematically sorted out the common problems collected by visits and inspections on the themes of “controlling pandemic, stabilizing economy and ensuring security”, as well as government-enterprise roundtables and other events, and focused on listening to responses and suggestions from the catering, accommodation, culture, tourism, exhibition, and advertising industries that faced challenges. On the basis of in-depth research and investigation, the city has formulated and formed a new round of policies to stabilize growth.
In general, this round of policies was formed on the basis of a combination of national policies, market voices and suggestions from various parties. It is a continuous and upgraded version of the policy issued at an important window for stabilizing growth. It can effectively build on the previous two rounds of policies to help enterprises bottom out and stabilize growth to form the combined superposition effect.
2. Main contents
The 22 Measures for Stabilizing Growth cover four aspects.
First, the city will focus on helping industries and promoting development. It will mainly focus on culture, tourism, sports, exhibitions, advertising, aviation, and various life service industries that have been greatly affected by the pandemic by further increasing assistance to enterprises, including five policies. First, the city will increase pandemic relief support to culture, tourism and sports industries. Subsidies will be offered to cinemas for movie tickets, and franchised commercial theaters and sports and fitness venues for resumption of work and markets. One-time subsidies will be offered to professional theaters for shutdown and traffic limits. At the same time, the scope of interest discounts for tourism loans will be expanded, one-time bailout subsidies will be offered to A-level scenic spots and star-rated hotels, and discount interest will be offered to sports enterprises. Second, the city will increase support to the exhibition industry. As for the economic and technological exhibitions to be held in Shanghai in 2022 despite the impact of the pandemic, the organizers will be given subsidies worth up to 10% of the actual rental expenses incurred, with a maximum of 1 million yuan for a single exhibition. Third, the city will support the recovery and development of the advertising industry. For units and individuals providing advertising services, financial support will be given on　par with 50% of the actual payment of cultural undertaking construction fees in the fourth quarter of 2022. Fourth, the city will increase the relief subsidies for the aviation industry. It will formulate and implement the 2022 Shanghai aviation industry subsidy plan, and provide subsidies for disinfection and nucleic acid testing. Fifth, the city will support the recovery of various types of life service industries. It will optimize the conditions for the identification of entitlement to subsidies for stabilizing employment in industries such as catering and accommodation. For pension and childcare service institutions that belong to the category of small, medium and micro enterprises or individual industrial and commercial households, and rent state-owned houses, rentals will be exempted until the end of 2022.
Second, the city will focus on enhancing main entities and boosting growth momentum. It will prioritize supporting small, medium and micro market players to become stronger and better, and further stimulate internal vitality, including four policies. First, the city will support the upgrading and development of small and micro enterprises. For those who become industrial enterprises above designated size for the first time, the municipal government will give incentives and encourage all districts to support them. All districts are encouraged to give certain rewards to those who become service enterprises above designated size or wholesale and retail enterprises above designated size for the first time. Second, the city will support the growth of SRDI (Specialized, Refinement, Differential, Innovation) SMEs. It will achieve full coverage of rewards to selected municipal-level and national-level SRDI SMEs, and districts　will give no less 100,000 yuan and 300,000 yuan in rewards to newly identified municipal-level SRDI SMEs　and national SRDI little giants. Third, the city will support the innovation and development of high-tech enterprises. For high-tech enterprises within the validity period of becoming industrial enterprises above designated size, construction enterprises with qualification grades, wholesale and retail catering enterprises above designated size, or service enterprises above designated size for the first time, the municipal and district government will jointly give each of them a one-time reward equivalent to 5% of its R&D investment in the previous year, with a maximum of 500,000 yuan. Fourth, the city will support the listings of high-quality enterprises. It will encourage all districts to give necessary support to enterprises newly included in the “Pujiang Light” science and technology enterprise database and enter the listing guidance period, and increase support for domestic and overseas listings of enterprises.
Third, the city will focus on expanding demand and stabilizing growth. It will make efforts from both the supply and demand sides of investment and consumption, foreign trade and foreign investment, and key industries, to provide support for economic growth throughout the year, including four policies. First, the city will actively expand effective investment. It will make good use of the new policy development financial instrument quota and special debt balance to accelerate the construction of major projects, and ensure that the annual investment in major projects exceeds 200 billion yuan. Second, the city will make every effort to promote the release of the potential of the consumer market. It will vigorously promote consumption in big-ticket items such as automobiles and housing, cancel the restrictions on the migration of small non-commercial used vehicles that meet the emission standards of National V and above, extend the policy of exempting purchase tax on new energy vehicles in accordance with national policies and regulations until the end of 2023, and reasonably support rigid and improvement needs for housing. It will amplify the multiplier effect of the 1 billion-yuan “Aigou Shanghai” electronic consumer coupons, continue to issue sports consumer coupons to citizens, and provide consumers in this city with a one-time subsidy equivalent to 10% of the payment amount and a maximum of 1,000 yuan for personal consumption such as green smart home appliances. The city will offer incentives for innovation and development of the consumer market. Third, the city will promote the stability and improvement of foreign trade and foreign investment. Multiple measures will be taken to reduce costs and simplify procedures for enterprises, and continue to shorten the processing time for export tax rebates. The city will vigorously support foreign trade enterprises to expand market shares, optimize the conditions for the identification of regional headquarters of multinational companies, and carry out pilot projects for the construction of a regional “Belt and Road” comprehensive service platform in the Yangtze River Delta. Fourth, the city will support enterprises in key industries to accelerate upgrading and development. It will support upgrading and transformation of key industries, increase the upper limit of support for major technological transformation projects in eligible key industries to 100 million yuan, provide discount support for eligible industrial parks’ “2-for-2” development loans, and increase the deduction rate for R&D expenses to 100% in the fourth quarter of 2022 for companies that are now entitled to a pre-tax deduction rate of 75%. It will support the upgrading and expansion of leading enterprises, and encourage all districts to provide support in accordance with regulations for advanced manufacturing enterprises with total industrial output value exceeding 1 billion yuan, 5 billion yuan and 10 billion yuan for the first time. The city will support green and low-carbon development, Metaverse, smart terminals and other new tracks to speed up the layout and development, and optimize the support policies for the first set, the first batch, and the first version. The city will implement the national preferential tax policies to support the manufacturing industry, and extend the period for deferred tax payment. It will support the healthy development of platform enterprises and private enterprises.Fourth, the city will focus on improving business environment and bolstering services. Specifically, it will adopt coordinated policies via multiple channels such as financial relief, medical insurance fee reduction, and fee elimination to lower burden to further optimize the development environment for enterprises. In terms of financial relief, the first step is to optimize the loan risk compensation mechanism for small, medium and micro enterprises, and cut the lower threshold of non-performing ratio compensation for enterprises in general industries to 0.8%, and that for qualified enterprises in key industries in the city to 0.5%. The second step is to implement the “first-loaner” interest and fee discount for SMEs. For small, medium and micro enterprises that have obtained the inclusive loan from commercial banks in Shanghai through the guarantee of the Shanghai Municipal Financing Guarantee Center for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2022, an interest discount of 2% will be given, for up to 200,000 yuan per enterprise. The third step is to increase the service capacity of inclusive finance for enterprises and carry out pilot projects of inclusive finance consultancy. The fourth step is to encourage and guide insurance institutions to develop innovative insurance products for pandemic prevention and control.　In terms of medical insurance fee reduction, the burden on medical insurance fee paid by employers will be reduced, and the payment ratio by employers will be lowered by 0.5 percentage points. In terms of fee elimination to reduce burden, in the fourth quarter of 2022, tolls for trucks on toll roads will be reduced or exempted, and the standard of port charges for government-priced goods will be lowered. The city will carry out special actions to prevent and resolve outstanding accounts of small and medium-sized enterprises, and carry out special rectification actions for enterprises-related illegal charges. In terms of invoicing convenience, the city will gradually expand the pilot program of fully digitized electronic invoicing, and achieve full coverage of key enterprises with the most concentrated invoicing volume in the city and high-quality enterprises with high credit and low risk in 2022. In terms of legal and credit services, the city will provide free “legal medical examinations” for enterprises, and comprehensively expand the program where minor illegal acts are not subject to administrative penalties in accordance with the law. The city will explore the establishment of an exemption mechanism for dishonesty caused by force majeure factors of the pandemic, and accelerate the promotion of credit reports to replace corporate compliance certificates. In terms of people's livelihood and security, the city will implement the national policy on one-time job expansion subsidy, make every effort to ensure the stable urban operation, stable energy supply and stable food production and supply, and give full play to the renovation of old areas, complete renovation of old houses, transformation of urban villages　and other livelihood projects to help expand investment, promote consumption, and stabilize employment.
Next, in accordance with the decision-making and deployment of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, Shanghai will pay close attention to formulating various implementation rules and application guidelines, actively implement facilitation measures such as accurate push, online processing, and entitlement without the need to apply, promote the efficient and direct delivery of various policies to market entities, promote the early and comprehensive implementation of a new round of policies to stabilize growth, and continue to release the superposition effect of a series of policy combinations on stabilizing growth.