XI: BUILD HIGH-QUALITY PORT IN HAINAN

President Xi Jinping underlined the importance of high quality and high standards in building a free trade port in Hainan province while prioritizing integrated institutional reform in the process of building the port.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, said in an instruction published on Monday that building the free trade port is a major strategic decision adopted by the CPC Central Committee.

Eyeing the big picture from both domestic and international perspectives, the move is to further the innovative development of socialism with Chinese characteristics, he said.

Xi called for more effort to free minds and enable bold innovations so reform measures can be rolled out immediately after successful test runs.

Central authorities must support bold reform and innovations by the province and enable the port's development to attain continuous new results, he said.

A master plan for the port was also released on Monday, indicating the country's firm determination to build an open economy within the framework of globalization.

The plan, released by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, requires establishing a basic free trade port policy system with a key focus on facilitating free trade and investment by 2025.

By 2035, the free trade port system and operations in Hainan will be more mature, and high-level process supervision will be basically constructed to achieve free trade and investment facilities, free cross-border capital flows, free and convenient transportation and access for people, and safe and orderly flow of data.

By the middle of the century, a high-level free trade port with strong international influence will be fully established, according to the plan.

Experts said the announcement demonstrates China's serious intention to deepen reform and opening-up as well as further integrate itself into the world economy.

As free trade ports are regarded as the world's most open form of economic zone, the significance of the port lies in its role not only in boosting regional development, but also in helping fuel the growth of the nation and globe, they added.

"While China faces a complicated and challenging international environment, the country continues to accelerate in opening wider to the outside world," said Cui Weijie, director of the Institute of Industry Development and Strategy under the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation. The plan "is sending a strong message that China is dedicated to promoting a high standard of opening-up, and it will help inject new impetus into the world economy", Cui said.

He highlighted Hainan's advantages in implementing comprehensive deepening of reforms and testing the high level of openness policies, saying the new plan will help foster high-quality economic development and fuel the growth along the routes of the Belt and Road Initiative.

According to the plan, more efforts will be made to grant Hainangreater autonomy for reform, creating a world-class free trade port rule of law environment, gradually establishing a suitable taxation system and building a complete, scientific and effective free trade port governance system.

LI STRESSES FINANCIAL AID FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

Premier Li Keqiang reiterated on Monday pledges to channel increased fiscal funds via the raising of fiscal deficits and issuance of government bonds directly to smaller businesses, self-employed individuals and low-income groups to help them ride out the COVID-19 pandemic.

Li spoke in Qingdao, Shandong province, at a symposium through video link with officials from provincial, city and county-level authorities and business leaders.

The premier noted that this year's Government Work Report included measures to raise budget deficits and issue special government bonds for COVID-19 control.

The move, which could increase fiscal funds by 2 trillion yuan ($280.2 billion), is an important step to alleviate businesses' difficulties and stimulate market vitality, he said.

The increased fiscal funds will be mainly used for creating jobs, ensuring people's basic living standards and protecting market players, he said.

As part of special policies adopted at special times, the funds will be directly channeled to primary-level units at city and county levels in order to benefit businesses and the people, he said.

He called it an innovative measure in macro regulation in that it gives more priority to helping businesses and leveraging the strength of market players in stabilizing economic fundamentals.

Li said the groups hit hardest by the pandemic have been micro, small and medium-sized businesses, self-employed individuals, farmers, those on flexible payrolls and workers in the service sector, in addition to those living below the national poverty line, the unemployed and those relying on subsistence allowances and other temporary help.

These people, who could amount to hundreds of millions, will be the main beneficiaries of the newly increased fiscal funds, he said.

The government will establish a special transfer payment mechanism to ensure that the funds will be channeled to city and county-level authorities so that they can arrange for them to be spent as soon as possible, he said.

Li urged financial departments to help with further clarification of the fiscal support policies and with specifying the scope of fund usage. City and county-level authorities should also come up with a list of struggling businesses and individuals while ensuring that the funds are channeled to where they are needed most, he said.

Li underscored the importance of establishing stringent oversight mechanisms to ensure that the funds are put to good use.

Financial authorities at various levels must establish special accounting books for the use of government bonds. Treasury offices at various levels must enable point-to-point appropriation of funds, he said, adding that auditors must prioritize keeping a close eye on newly added fiscal funds.

The benefits of other measures to alleviate corporate burdens−such as those further reducing social security contributions of businesses and encouraging financial institutions to streamline their costs and fees−must also be channeled directly to businesses, he said.

Government at various levels must fully enforce tax cuts and fee reduction policies and refrain from increasing corporate burdens despite budgetary imbalances, he added.

BAN ON RAMADAN FASTING 'NONSENSE', XINJIANG SAYS

The Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region's government denied on Monday an allegation that Muslims were barred from fasting in the region during Ramadan and said this had been fabricated by overseas "East Turkestan" forces.

Recently, "East Turkestan" forces, which aim to split Xinjiang from China, alleged the region had banned Muslims from Ramadan fasting, and the website of the "World Uygur Congress "announced its plan to post video clips alleging Uygur people were subject to "persecution" during Ramadan.

"The fasting ban allegations by the forces abroad are nonsense. During every Ramadan, they habitually copy and spread such rumors all the time, recklessly attacking Xinjiang," Ilijan Anayt, spokesman for the regional government, said during a news conference on Monday.

Ilijan said no citizen is discriminated against or mistreated for believing in or not believing in a religion in Xinjiang, and believers' legal religious activities either performed at religious venues or at home, such as prayers and fasting, are managed by religious groups or believers themselves and protected by law.

As for videos showing so-called persecution of Uygur people, Ilijan said these are fakes, which intend to sow discord among ethnic groups, disrupt ethnic relations, and incite ethnic antagonism in the region.

"The intentions they harbor are extremely vicious. Indisputably, Xinjiang has enjoyed harmony and orderly religious activities during the fasting month," said Ilijan.

Meanwhile, in response to an allegation that the region's vocational and training centers face the risk of a large-scale novel coronavirus outbreak, the spokesman said this is a groundless and totally ridiculous accusation.

"Colluding with some United States and Western anti-China politicians, the 'East Turkestan' forces want to politicize the pandemic and stigmatize China in the guise of COVID-19, and their despicable behavior proves nothing but their obsequious mentality and vicious intention acting on behalf of US-led Western anti-China forces," said Ilijan.

According to the regional government, there were 76 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Xinjiang, and no new cases have been reported for more than 100 consecutive days.

"Through joint efforts made by people in Xinjiang of all ethnic groups, the pandemic situation in the region has been effectively curbed," Ilijan added.

Xinjiang set up vocational and training centers in accordance with the law to provide courses on Mandarin, laws, vocational skills and deradicalization programs for people influenced by religious extremism and terrorism. According to the regional government, all the trainees in the centers graduated in December 2019.

"Since all the trainees have left the centers, secured stable employment and started a happy life, how can there be a risk of large-scale infection in the centers?" he asked.

MORE DEMAND FOR TALENT TO BUILD INFRASTRUCTURE

The construction of new infrastructure such as 5G, artificial intelligence,  industrial internet and internet of things saw an increase in online jobs by 35.86 percent year-on-year in the first four months in China, the Time Weekly reported on Tuesday as it quoted the data from a recent report by the big data research institute of Liepin.com, a Chinese online recruitment platform.

Statics from Zhipin.com, another online recruitment platform, also showed jobs in the spring season in new infrastructure construction for graduates rose 1 to 5 percentage points year-on-year.

Founder of headhunting Okoffer, Xing Yutang, said: "The country's acceleration in new infrastructure construction inevitably fuels rapid development in relevant industries, which leads to an increasing demand in talent."

However, fields in terms of industries and geography in new infrastructure construction are far from equal in performance in the country.

5G is among the hottest industries. As many as 23 of 31 provincial-level areas in China put forward goals in building 5G base stations this year. According the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, over 500,000 5G base stations will be built in the country this year. As of late March, construction at 198,000 stations had been completed. 5G service subscribers had exceeded 50 million.

The significant expanding market creates huge demand in talent. According to Liepin.com, jobs related to 5G increased by 73.17 percent in the first four months. "As more 5G base stations are being built, demand for talent will continue to grow," the big data research institute of Liepin.com said.

Geographically, at the provincial level, Guangdong, Beijing, Jiangsu, Shanghai and Shandong saw the highest job-offering ratios for talent in the new infrastructure construction industries, according to Zhaopin.com.

Looking at city-level data, which is more believable, the top 10 cities with the highest job-offering ratios for talent in new infrastructure construction are Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Suzhou, Chengdu, Nanjing, Xi'an, Wuhan and Hangzhou.

WUHAN UNIVERSITIES TO WELCOME FINAL-YEAR STUDENTS IN JUNE

Universities in Wuhan, Hubei province, will start to welcome students in graduating classes from June 8, according to notices issued by the universities on Monday.

Final-year students at Wuhan University can return to school from June 8 to 11 and June 14 to 17, the university said in a notice.

Postgraduate students who are not in their final year but need to go back to school for academic research can return to the university from June 8 after gaining permission from the school, it said.

The university will inform students about the procedures and exact time to return to school and those who have not received any notice cannot return, it said.

Huazhong University of Science and Technology said in a notice that undergraduate and postgraduate students in graduating classes can return to the school in staggered time slots starting from June 8.

All teachers and faculty members should be back at the school before June 6 and they should undergo nucleic acid testing, it said.

Central China Normal University and Wuhan University of Technology will also start to allow final-year students to return to school from June 8, they said in separate notices.

All four universities said only students living in the Chinese mainland can return to school and the school opening dates for students in other grades and those living outside of the mainland will be decided later according to the epidemic situation.

Final-year students, who live in the Chinese mainland and pursue undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Hubei's universities, can return to school starting from June 8, said a notice issued by the Hubei headquarters for COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control late last month.

Students can decide whether they want to return to school or not and each university can decide the specific dates for the reopening of the school, it said.

CHINESE LEGISLATORS TO INSPECT ENFORCEMENT OF LAW ON PROMOTING AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Monday said it would send groups to six provincial regions to inspect the enforcement of the law on the promotion of agricultural mechanization.

The inspection will be carried out in June and July, covering the provinces of Jilin, Jiangsu, and Henan, among others.

The inspection teams will focus on talent cultivation, information services, research input, technical training, and financial support in this area.

The implementation of the law is of great significance in achieving comprehensive rural revitalization, said Ji Bingxuan, vice-chairman of the NPC Standing Committee.

An inspection report will be submitted to the NPC Standing Committee in August.

TAX INCENTIVES TO EASE BURDEN OF SMALL COMPANIES

China's 2.5 trillion yuan ($351.2 billion) tax relief plan for this year will help ease financial strains and accelerate production recovery of enterprises with key measures like further cuts in the value-added tax rates and social security contributions, experts said on Monday.

From January to April, total tax and fee reductions in China reached 906.6 billion yuan, including 485.7 billion yuan from the newly launched measures, the State Taxation Administration said. The administration will continually implement the tax and fee cut policies to help small-scale and privately-owned businesses offset economic slowdown risks, said a senior STA official.

China reduced taxes and fees by 2.36 trillion yuan in 2019, beyond the annual target of 2 trillion yuan, with manufacturing and micro and small businesses being the major beneficiaries. This year, the target is to make further tax and fee cuts of about 500 billion yuan, according to the Government Work Report for 2020.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the tax authorities have launched new policies to cut and exempt taxes and fees to stabilize employment. These policies, introduced early this year, are due to expire by June-end, and will be extended till the end of the year, the report said.

To counter further headwinds during the business resumption process, the government decided to reduce or cancel value-added taxes for small-sized businesses. VAT on services, such as public transportation, restaurants and hotels, tourism and entertainment, and culture and sports, will be exempted.

In addition, the civil aviation development fund contributions and port development fees will be reduced or canceled. The share of employees' basic old-age insurance paid by enterprises will also be reduced.

The government will further exempt micro, small, and medium-sized businesses from contributions to basic old-age insurance, unemployment insurance, and work injury compensation insurance schemes, said the report.

All these measures will result in savings of more than 2.5 trillion yuan for enterprises this year, which is estimated at 2.5 percent of the total GDP, said analysts.

That will be the nation's most aggressive tax and fee cuts within four decades, according to economists, which will lead to a substantial contraction in government's fiscal revenue this year. In the first four months, tax income contracted by 14.5 percent on a yearly basis and the weakness may linger in the coming months.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom. - H. L. Mencken