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BEIJING — The consumer spending during the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday surged noticeably, according to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Commerce (MOC).

The combined sales of retail and catering enterprises in China rose 28.7 percent year on year to 821 billion yuan (about 127.5 billion U.S. dollars) during the Spring Festival golden week, data from the MOC showed.

China’s online sales exceeded 122 billion yuan during the same period, with online catering sales surging 135 percent compared with the Spring Festival holiday last year as more Chinese ordered ready-to-eat meals through e-commerce or online food delivery platforms.

Sales of products related to Lunar New Year’s Eve dinners increased by 54.9 percent year on year during the holiday, said the MOC.

The Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year, is an important occasion for family reunions, which falls on Feb. 12 this year, and many places across China have encouraged residents and migrant workers to stay put for the festival to reduce the flow of personnel and curb the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic.

On February 8th, Vice Mayor He Dong led a team to visit key industrial enterprises Wuhu to carry out research on the promotion of intelligent manufacturing capacity of industrial enterprises in the city, the stabilization of post and retention of workers during the Spring Festival of 2021, and the assistance of “one enterprise, one group and one policy”.

He Dong and his delegation successively came to the laboratories and production workshops of Wuhu Lion Automobile Technology Co., Ltd and Yuchai United Power Co., Ltd. Through field visits and seminars, they had a detailed understanding of the production and operation dynamics and development trend of the enterprises, analyzed the existing problems and discussed the solutions. At the same time, they provided on-site guidance on job stability, epidemic prevention and control during the festival.

He Dong pointed out that enterprises should adhere to innovation-driven development, strengthen the leadership of science and technology, make breakthroughs in core technologies and seize the market opportunities. It is necessary to accelerate the transformation and upgrading of digitalization and intelligence, enhance the competitiveness of the industrial chain, seize the opportunity in high-quality development, and make contributions to building Wuhu into a “Smart Manufacturing City”.

Translated by Yuan Mengwen from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government

    Yesterday morning, the reporter came to Wuhu Railway Station from Beijing Road and walked into the West Square to see that all the roads were paved with brand-new asphalt, with signs pointing to bus garage entrance, private vehicle entrance and taxi entrance respectively. Drivers who came to the West Square for the first time could know clearly which road they should take. Later, the reporter walked through the West Square where the trees were tall and straight and shrubs were planted in the flower beds. On the north side of the West Square, passengers can conveniently transfer between buses and high-speed trains while experiencing the attractive bus hub and railway station.

    “The West Square is not only eye-catching, but also really convenient, ” said Mr. Fan, ready to take a train through the Square, “It is very close to the downtown area, and several buses are available to take us to Wuhu Railway Station. Usually, it only costs 7 yuan or so by taxi from near Zhongshan Road Pedestrian Street.” Although it was possible to enter the station from the West Square some time ago, it is now pleasant to see that the Square is surrounded by green plants and lanes are well planned and constructed as it has been officially put into use. Mr Lin, a taxi driver who just sent someone to Wuhu Railway Station, said that the scientific lane design of the West Square makes it more convenient to pick up and drop off passengers.

    It is reported that the West Square is mainly rebuilt on the site of the previous railway station square, covering an area of about 110 mu. The total construction area is about 49,000 square meters, including 4,800 square meters above the ground and some 44,000 square meters underground. The main facilities of the West Square include the entrance platform, bus parking lot and bus dispatching room, 2 non-motor vehicle parking lots, the tourist coach parking lot in the northeast corner, the private vehicle parking lot in the southeast corner, 3 public toilets and the U-shaped entrance. The open area on the first floor underground has been equipped with the main corridor and sunken squares on both sides, the exit, taxi waiting area and parking lot, two public toilets, etc.

Translated by Wang Mengxiao from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government

It is learned from Wuhu Municipal Commerce Bureau that in the past year, the city seized the strategic opportunity of the State Council’s approval of the establishment of China (Wuhu) Integrated Pilot Zone for Cross-border E-commerce and the provincial government’s approval of the Implementation Plan for the construction of Wuhu Integrated Pilot Zone, and took multiple measures to promote the new foreign trade mode of cross-border e-commerce to a new level of development. In 2020, the city’s cross-border e-commerce transactions reached 1.839 billion yuan, ranking second in the province.

In 2020, the city focused on attracting investment from leading enterprises in the cross-border e-commerce industry, including Pinduoduo, Cainiao, China Ningbo International Cooperation Co.,Ltd, 58 Enterprise Service and so on. The cross-border e-commerce transactions of Wuhu Muchen E-commerce Co., Ltd. ranked first in the province, and the cross-border e-commerce export volume of Wuhu U-Play Corporation exceeded 84 million yuan in 2020.

    Last year, the city set up an online public service platform for cross-border e-commerce and started to build supporting facilities such as Cross-border E-commerce Supervision Center and Bonded Warehouse. Cross-border e-commerce enterprises can utilize public overseas warehouses to expand their businesses. Up to now, 8 enterprises in the city have established 27 oversea s warehouses. In addition, we have built four offline cross-border e-commerce industrial parks, two of which have been rated as provincial cross-border e-commerce industrial parks (a total of nine in the province).

    The city has made cross-border e-commerce one of the six major industries in Wuhu Area of Anhui Pilot Free Trade Zone, planned the construction of Cross-border Pet Industrial Park, and actively developed bonded online shopping and other businesses. The Municipal Market Regulation Administration has formulated 20 measures to promote the sound development of cross-border e-commerce, and established a system of chief business service officers for cross-border e-commerce to improve service efficiency.

Translated by Wang Mengxiao from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government

    The 4th Session of the 13th Anhui Provincial People’s Congress held its closing meeting in Hefei, capital of East China’s Anhui province, on Monday.

    Li Jinbin, Party chief of the province and chairman of the Standing Committee of the Anhui Provincial People’s Congress, delivered a speech at the meeting.

    Shen Suli, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Anhui Provincial People’s Congress, chaired the closing meeting.

    Wang Qingxian was elected governor of the province at the meeting.

    Meanwhile, Wei Xiaoming was elected vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the 13th Anhui Provincial People’s Congress. Bai Jinming was elected secretary general of the Standing Committee of the 13th Anhui Provincial People’s Congress. Wang Yingchun, Zhao Xinqun, Gao Li and Guo Decheng were elected members of the Standing Committee of the 13th Anhui Provincial People’s Congress. Chen Wu was elected chief procurator of the Anhui Provincial People’s Procuratorate.

    The provincial legislature approved a resolution on the annual government work report, a resolution on the province’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives through the Year 2035, a resolution on the province’s implementation of the annual plan on economic and social development in 2020 and a draft plan for 2021, and a resolution on the implementation of the budgets in 2020 and the draft budgets for 2021.

    
Resolutions on the work reports of the standing committee of the legislature, the Anhui Provincial High People’s Court, and the Anhui Provincial People’s Procuratorate were also passed at the closing meeting.

It’s learned from the Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau that 187 old urban communities in Wuhu City , covering 29,342 households with a construction area of 2.8883 million square meters, will be renovated this year. The number of to-be-renovated old communities in the city ranks first in Anhui province, and the renovation area as well as the number of households involved rank second in the province.

The renovation of old communities is a pro-people project that delivers real benefits to them. From 2019 to 2021, the city plans to renovate about 2,600 old  communities, including those that affect residents’ daily lives or those residents of which have strong willingness to renovate, such as communities that have been built for a long time with insufficient supporting facilities, poor living surroundings and management, etc. We will effectively improve outdated facilities and equipment, incomplete functional supporting facilities and poor living surroundings in old communities. In the process of renovation, we do our utmost to implement the project and mobilize the masses to actively support us, sticking to the principle of all for the masses and relying on the masses. For example, we publicize the preliminary design plan for the renovation of old communities, solicit opinions from different people, and invite experts to review to improve the renovation plan.

The key to building up weak links concerning the functions of old communities lies in the post-project management and maintenance. On the one hand, we have clearly defined the responsibilities of various departments, jointly promoted the renovation of old urban communities into plots, carried out a thorough registration of illegal car parking, occupation, piling of trash and construction in those communities, and cleared the “obstacles” in the process of renovating old communities. On the other hand, we implement the Four-sphere Integrated Management Mechanism involving the Communist Party organizations in communities, neighborhood committees, proprietors’ committees and property service enterprises, set up property mediation centers, actively promote the “red property” management, allow the majority of proprietors to vigorously participate in community management, and ensure the effectiveness of the renovation of old communities.

Translated by Wang Mengxiao from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government

    BEIJING — China has rolled out a series of guidelines to ensure the well-being of people who had been asked to avoid traveling during the upcoming Spring Festival holiday.

    All residents in areas at high risk of COVID-19 shall stay at their current residing localities to prevent spreading the epidemic, said a recent circular released by the general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council.

    Travel from medium-risk areas will need permission from the local epidemic prevention and control authorities. Those living in low-risk areas shall be advised to avoid traveling unless necessary, the circular said.

    According to the circular, all localities, especially large and medium-sized cities, are asked to guarantee stable supplies of necessities and energy. It demanded smooth logistics and transport services to meet the needs for shopping, recreation, and entertainment of people who stay where they work during the holiday.

    Efforts should ensure that those who work during the holiday enjoy due overtime payments and rest under the relevant laws, it added.

    The Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year, falls on Feb 12 this year.

    Since more than a billion trips are expected to be made by travelers, the Spring Festival travel rush undoubtedly poses a challenge to the country’s prevention and control work, since it may be possible for people who are infected with the novel coronavirus but not showing symptoms to infect others when traveling.

    This is especially true as many migrant workers will be returning to their home villages in rural areas. With the arrival of winter, there has been an uptick in the number of infections. Most of these have been in rural areas in North and Northeast China where the temperatures are much lower than in South China.

    Requiring those returning to their home villages to be tested for the virus would effectively reduce the risk of the epidemic entering the countryside and ensure that everyone can enjoy a healthy and safe Spring Festival.

    That is why an official of the National Health Commission said at a news conference on Wednesday that all those who are traveling to rural areas during the Spring Festival travel period must have a valid certificate for a negative nucleic acid test result.

    So whether to go home or not has become a pressing question for migrant workers.

    Spring Festival trips are normally concentrated a week before and after the Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb 12 this year. Hospitals will likely be crowded with would-be travelers a week before the start and end of this two week period, since a test result is valid only for seven days.

    Of course, it would be safer and make the prevention and control work easier if the majority of rural migrant workers elected to stay where they work for the festival.

    But if some in low-risk areas have a plan to go back to their home villages where no infections have been reported for months, perhaps it would be possible for tests to be organized for them at their places of work, as this would ease the pressure on testing stations. The charge for a test should also be as low as possible.

    For those who choose to stay where they work for the festival, local governments may consider giving them subsidies or help arrange meals, which may possibly prompt more to stay in the places where they work rather than traveling back to their home villages.

    It is important to prevent the virus from being spread in rural areas. But it is also no less important to take into consideration the difficulties workers from rural areas might face if they stay in the places where they work for the festival.

Reporters learned that recently, China Data Pay and Chinafund jointly released the “the ranking of total market capitalization of listed companies in mainland in 2020.” Among them, Wuhu ranked 19^th on the list, which was among the top 20.

The stock market is a barometer of economy. The number, size and competitiveness of listed companies reflect the comprehensive competitiveness of cities to a certain extent. According to statistics, the total market value of listed companies on the Chinese mainland reached 116 trillion yuan by the end of 2020, up nearly 29 trillion yuan from the end of 2019.

Data showed that 659 listed companies in Beijing, excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, had a total market value of 27.18 trillion yuan at the end of 2020, topping the list for a second year.

Wuhu, with a total market value of 882.3 billion yuan, ranks 19th in China, 7th in the Yangtze River Delta and 1st in the whole province.

In addition, China Data Pay also released the “Ranking of Listed Companies in Second and Third Tier Cities by Market Value (2020)”. Data show that the total market value of listed companies in Wuhu at the end of 2020 is 882.3 billion yuan, ranking the fifth in the market value list of second and third-tier cities. Renhuai in Guizhou province, which still has only one listed company, Kweichow Moutai, took the title again.

Translated by Yuan Mengwen from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government

The reporter learned from the municipal transportation department that in 2020, Wuhu City will complete the rural road surface extension project of 1265 kilometers, basically realizing the connection between villages and towns, and the initial formation of the rural road network. 317 kilometers of rural road maintenance projects and 94 kilometers of rural road safety and life protection projects have been completed.

During the “13th Five-Year Plan” period, transportation department in Wuhu took rural road construction as an important work to promote rural revitalization and fight against poverty. In the past five years, 2.46 billion yuan has been invested in the city’s rural roads, of which 455 million being invested by municipal finance. A total of 2,071.29 kilometers of rural roads have been opened and 2,057.99 kilometers have been extended. 981.1 kilometers of major and medium maintenance projects have been carried out and 1,235.29 kilometers of county and township roads have been protected. 216.19 kilometers of village roads have been protected and six dangerous bridges have been renovated.

Through the construction of the rural road project and the expansion and extension project, Wuhu has basically realized the hardening of  road for villagers, the basic establishment of road length system, constant improvement of management level and the increasing reasonability of rural road network. Last year, the city was successfully listed as a national pilot city for deepening the reform of rural road management and maintenance system.

Translated by Yuan Mengwen from Foreign Affairs Office of Wuhu Municipal People’s Government