The foreign affairs offices in the city and in administrative areas of Zibo – located in East China's Shandong province – have installed an online office network to fully assist businesses to resume production, in the wake of the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The main municipal foreign affairs office in Zibo recently coordinated a speedy and efficient response with the other offices to an invitation letter for three foreign engineering and technical staff to enter Zibo. This was for the commissioning, installation and production start of imported equipment for the Shandong Bohui Paper Co Ltd – located in Huantai county, in the Zibo region.
The main office received an urgent email from Bohui Paper, formally inviting the engineers to enter China on the afternoon of March 21. In response, the foreign affairs offices of the county and the city are said to have jointly fast-tracked the online application and expedited its approval.
A raft of normally lengthy municipal procedures were completed in less than a day, while the provincial procedures were dealt with on March 23.
Since its launch – while the offices have diligently observed epidemic prevention and control measures – the new online municipal foreign affairs system has successively processed more than 200 urgent invitations for badly needed foreign experts and technical personnel for companies. It's an achievement that is said to have strongly bolstered the production and operation of the city's enterprises.
More generally, new technology and online video conferences are helping to sustain and generate business in the area, in the face of the pandemic. For example, an online ceramics industry meeting between Zibo and the Mie prefecture in Japan took place on March 15, resulting in commercial deals being struck with local ceramics companies.
Zibo Mengyou Toughened Glass Products Factory – whose products are exported to Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea, Southeast Asia and other countries and regions – is one company to have benefited from the new online video exchanges.
"Ninety-five percent of our orders now come from overseas," said general manager Meng Deyou.
"Since the outbreak of the epidemic, much of the company's overseas business can only be negotiated by video," he added.
Meng said the local foreign affairs offices had invited the group to participate in online business activities now many times, which had helped it to access a great deal of new customer information.
"The cloud communications have meant that instead of declining, our export business has increased."
Moving forwards, plans are for the municipal foreign affairs office to also introduce key information about local enterprises to the American state associations in China, the Japan Chamber of Commerce in China and the Korea Chamber of Commerce in China.
