Archive for ‘private enterprises’

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25/01/2020

China deploys 1,230 doctors and nurses to help fight coronavirus as private firms pledge money, supplies

  • Teams from Shanghai, Guangdong – including experts who helped tackle Sars – arrive in Wuhan to lend their support
  • Tencent, JD.com, Lenovo among raft of private firms offering financial aid to those battling deadly outbreak
Doctors and nurses from across China are being dispatched to help tackle the coronavirus epidemic in Hubei province. Photo: Xinhua
Doctors and nurses from across China are being dispatched to help tackle the coronavirus epidemic in Hubei province. Photo: Xinhua
Chinese authorities and private enterprises are stepping up their support for embattled medical teams in Hubei province as they continue to fight the coronavirus epidemic, while neighbouring governments ramp up their efforts to prevent its further spread.
Hospitals across Wuhan – the city at the centre of the outbreak – have been overwhelmed by the flood of patients and doctors are becoming increasingly frustrated at the lack of support, both in terms of supplies and personnel, they have received.
But national bodies say they are responding to the crisis.
On Saturday, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said that six medical teams comprising 1,230 staff had been set up and dispatched to help fight the deadly virus in Hubei.
Three medical units from Shanghai, Guangdong and the armed forces had already arrived in the province, it said, though did not make clear if they were in addition to or part of the six teams.

Chen Dechang, a doctor from Ruijin Hospital in Shanghai who is among those sent to Hubei, said it was important there were more medical staff on the scene.

“We can help save more patients in the intensive care unit if we are on the front line,” he said.

Authorities in Shanghai have also sent 81 ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) life-support machines to Jinyintan Hospital, which is one of the designated facilities treating patients in Wuhan.

The ECMO technique – which involves removing blood from a person’s body, removing the carbon dioxide and oxygenating red blood cells before pumping them back into the patient – has already been used on one critically ill patient at Wuhan University’s Zhongnan Hospital, according to Shanghai-based news outlet Thepaper.cn.

Though the report did not say how effective the treatment had been.

Medical teams in Wuhan have been under huge pressure since the outbreak began. Photo: Xinhua
Medical teams in Wuhan have been under huge pressure since the outbreak began. Photo: Xinhua
The team from Guangdong comprised 42 doctors and 93 nurses, the NHC said. The deployment came after a group of current and former medical staff from Southern Medical University in Guangzhou – who had helped tackle the Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak in 2002-03 – signed a petition saying they were willing to help in Wuhan.

“We are a team of experienced practitioners who fought Sars,” they said in the petition, a copy of which was posted on the social media accounts of Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily.

“We cannot back away from our responsibility to help 17 years later as people are facing the outbreak of a new coronavirus. We are willing to be deployed to the front line to make our contributions.”

A team of 135 doctors from Chongqing arrived in Wuhan on Friday evening, the NHC said, without elaborating.

A medical team from Guangdong province prepares to travel to Wuhan. Photo: Xinhua
A medical team from Guangdong province prepares to travel to Wuhan. Photo: Xinhua
As well as the wave of medical support, several private companies said they had provided financial support to help fight the epidemic.
According to Chinese media reports, Shanghai Ocean Forest Assets has donated 10 million yuan (US$1.4 million) to the cause, while Shanghai-based asset management firm, Jinglin Assets is coordinating efforts to buy urgently needed medical supplies from South Korea and Japan.
Shenzhen’s Fantasia Holdings said it would donate 6 million yuan and send medical supplies, including surgical masks, to Wuhan, while tech giant Tencent said it would donate 300 million yuan from its charity. E-commerce platform JD.com said it had donated 1 million surgical masks and 60,000 other medical items.
Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi said on Friday it had sent a first batch of medical equipment – masks and thermometers worth more than 300,000 yuan – to Wuhan, while tech firm Lenovo said on Saturday it would donate all of the IT equipment required by the new specialist treatment centre being built in the city.
Authorities set a target to have the 1,000-bed facility up and running within six days of starting construction.

Aside from the support from the private sector, state lender China Development Bank on Friday issued a 2 billion yuan emergency loan to Wuhan, while a day earlier, China’s finance ministry said it had allocated 1 billion yuan to authorities in Hubei to help tackle the epidemic.

Across the country, authorities have introduced a number of measures to help prevent the further spread of the coronavirus, including the closure of all cinemas in Shanghai.

Wuhan residents stockpile food, medical supplies
25 Jan 2020

Also on Saturday it was reported that Liang Wudong, a doctor at Xinhua Hospital in Wuhan, had become the first medical professional to die after treating people infected with the virus.

Liang, 62, was suspected of having contracted the virus last week and had been transferred to Jinyintan Hospital for treatment. He died at 7am on Saturday, Thepaper.cn reported.

According to official figures, 41 people have been killed by the coronavirus and there have been more than 1,280 confirmed cases. The vast majority are in the Chinese mainland, but there have also been confirmed cases in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and eight other countries, including the United States and Europe.

Tens of millions of people in cities across Hubei are effectively on lockdown after the introduction of travel bans to help control the spread of the virus.

Source: SCMP

Posted in China, China Development Bank, chinese authorities, Chongqing, coronavirus, coronavirus epidemic, deploys, doctors and nurses, ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) life-support machines, ECMO technique, Europe, Guangdong, help fight, Hong Kong, Hubei, hubei province, Japan, JD.com, Jinglin Assets, Jinyintan Hospital, Lenovo, Macau, money, National Health Commission (NHC), People’s Daily, pledge, private enterprises, private firms, Ruijin Hospital, SARs, Shanghai, Shanghai Ocean Forest Assets, Shenzhen’s Fantasia Holdings, smartphone manufacturer, South Korea, Southern Medical University, supplies, Taiwan, Teams, TENCENT, Uncategorized, United States, Wuhan, Wuhan University, Xinhua Hospital, Zhongnan Hospital | Leave a Comment »

07/03/2019

China Focus: More reform needed to benefit private enterprises

BEIJING, March 6 (Xinhua) — China should push forward its reform to facilitate the development of private enterprises, a political advisor said Wednesday.

The reform should give them tangible benefits in terms of steady development and fair competition, Liu Shijin, deputy director of the economic committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said at a press conference.

Compared with state-owned enterprises, private enterprises have seen more difficulties partly due to insufficient credit support, Liu said.

The reform of existing financial enterprises should be promoted, and more importantly, the country should relax market access for the development of a number of financial institutions and financial products that provide special services to smaller firms, Liu said.

The private sector plays an important role in the economic system, contributing more than 50 percent of tax revenue, 60 percent of GDP, 70 percent of technological innovation, 80 percent of urban employment and 90 percent of new jobs and new firms.

“The private sector and the country’s economic and social development have been closely related to each other, and formed a community of a shared future,” Liu said.

However, the difficulties that private firms and small businesses face in accessing affordable financing have not yet been effectively solved. The business environment still falls short of market entities’ expectations, according to a government work report delivered Tuesday by Premier Li Keqiang at the opening of the annual legislative session.

Loans to small and micro businesses by China’s large state-owned commercial banks will increase by over 30 percent in 2019, the report said.

The country also announced reducing the tax burden on and social insurance contributions of enterprises by nearly 2 trillion yuan (about 298 billion U.S. dollars) this year, with a focus on the manufacturing sector and smaller businesses, according to the report.

Liu said that the government’s policy of supporting the development of private enterprises had been “explicit and consistent.”

The non-public sector’s status and functions in the country’s economic and social development have not changed. The principle and policies to unswervingly encourage, support and guide the development of the non-public sector have not changed, and the principle and policies to provide a sound environment and more opportunities to the sector have not changed either, according to an important symposium on private enterprises last year.

Private enterprises have truly felt the government’s unchanged stance on, confidence in and policy support for the private sector, said Nan Cunhui, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPPCC National Committee and chairman of power equipment giant CHINT Group.

“The only change is that what we receive keeps becoming better and better,” he said.

The tax-cut measures for the manufacturing sector put forward in the government work report is a big stimulus to private enterprises and the whole sector, Nan said.

Private firms also need to have the conditions for equal development and a level playing field, Liu said.

Policy support is important, but what’s more important is a stable law-based environment that does not change with short-term policy changes, Liu added.

“We will strive to create a positive business environment in which entrepreneurs can be free of concerns in doing business and running companies,” the government work report said.

Source: Xinhua

Posted in annual legislative session, China alert, CHINT Group, deputy director of the economic committee, Liu Shijin, manufacturing sector, More reform, Nan Cunhui, National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), power equipment giant, Premier Li Keqiang, private enterprises, smaller businesses, social insurance contributions, Standing Committee of the CPPCC National Committee, state-owned commercial bank, tax burden, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

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