The article is from the public number: China Economic Weekly (ID: ChinaEconomicWeekly) , author: Deng Ya Man .

Under the epidemic, “China”Made in China”, the largest production base in Dongguan, is experiencing unprecedented resumption of work.

According to the news of the Guangdong Provincial Government’s press conference on February 11, as of 12 o’clock on February 10, there were 4,491 enterprises in Dongguan that started and resumed work, among which manufacturing enterprises accounted for about 80%.

A reporter from China Economic Weekly found from the “Sky Eye Check” that as of February 17, the number of companies registered in “Dongguan City” exceeded 300,000, of which the registered capital was small and micro within 1 million. The number of enterprises accounts for about 1/3.

Small Factory Owner: Waiting without a schedule is tormenting

Chen Xingqiao, owner of the small factory in Dongguan, has been engaged in the raw material manufacturing industry for 18 years. This year is the most difficult year he has felt.

“It can only last for another 10 days at most.” Chen Xingqiao told the reporter of China Economic Weekly that due to the delay in the resumption of work, the company’s funds have shown signs of “cutting flow”. If it is around early March, If he can’t resume work, he will close the factory and dismiss the workers on the spot.

Qiaotou Town, Dongguan City, where Chen Xingqiao is located, is one of the most concentrated towns in Dongguan for manufacturing chemical raw materials. Like many local small factory owners, he owns a rented privately owned factory building and 5 employees, of which 3 employees live in the same local area as him, and the other two return from Hunan and Guangxi on February 10, respectively. .

Cost is being consumed again and again. “The annual rent of the factory is about 30,000 ~ 40,000, and the average monthly salary of five employees is 6,000 yuan, and then the production materials must be taken into account.” Chen Xingqiao said that because the factory is a private property house and its identity is a small and micro enterprise, According to the current policies promulgated by Dongguan City, his company is not within the scope of rent reduction or loan from banks, so he can only “carry it on his own”.

In the past two days, Chen Xingqiao was considering borrowing money from friends. He picked up his phone several times and put it down. “My credit card is now overdue. I want to borrow 100,000 yuan from friends around to survive this month, but I think it’s not easy for everyone now. I don’t really know who to talk to for a while.”

Apart from cost pressures, what worried him most was that the timetable for resuming work in Dongguan has not yet been released. “There was neither a specific notice nor a clear reply, and the workers and I could only wait passively there.” Before February 10, Chen Xingqiao filled out the application materials for resumption of work as required and was leased to the “landlord” of his factory Submit it on your behalf, but have not heard the following.

“It is estimated that like other areas in Guangdong, we have to wait for the enterprises above the designated size to complete the inspection before queuing, but waiting without a timetable is very tormenting,” said Chen Xingqiao.

A reporter from China Economic Weekly looked up the data from the “Sky Eye Check” and found that as of February 17, the number of companies with registered capital of more than 10 million in Dongguan has reached about 80,000.

In addition to his own factory, Chen Xingqiao also hopes that companies in its downstream industries can resume work as soon as possible. “Our client companies cannot resume work, which means that the orders completed by our raw material manufacturing plant cannot go to them, nor can they eat new orders, and slowly the entire capital chain is broken.”

In the long supply chain of China’s manufacturing industry, the raw material industry is at the forefront. Once the price of raw materials increases, the cost pressure will soon be transmitted to the entire manufacturing enterprise. As a small manufacturer of chemical raw materials, Chen Xingqiao’s customers are mainly concentrated in electronics manufacturing, luggage and other industries.


“As long as we can resume work, we have a chance to live”

“As long as we can resume work, we have the opportunity to survive.” Chen Xingqiao said that resumption of work often means that there will be new income and orders, and it is not necessarily that small and micro enterprises will not be adequately protected. Micro-enterprises are dominated by local residents, and the number of migrants is small. Many factories are not labor-intensive. They are spacious and isolated. Therefore, we hope that the government will not divide the resumption schedule according to the size of the enterprise and the number of labor. It is “just talking about things” so that some qualified small and micro enterprises can return to work in priority.

Fenggang Town, Dongguan City, where the small factory owner Shen Gang is located, has resumed “partially”. “It is estimated that the resumption rate of our industrial park will not be greater than 10%.” Shen Gang said that the resumption materials in their area are mainly submitted to the village committee for approval. Among them, the materials before resumption mainly include: the factory’s self-responsible commitment, the factory Personnel information form, etc. (Hubei personnel came back and quarantined for 14 days, non-Hubei quarantined for 7 days) .

On February 11, at the press conference of the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council, Ou Xiaoli, director of the Social Development Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that the practice of restricting the resumption of production and production by simple and crude methods such as approval will be strictly prohibited.

For Shen Gang, It ’s more challengingThe place of the factory is after the resumption of work: According to the regulations, we will make a record of resumption of work, organize workers to work in batches and separate meals, buy masks, thermometers, disinfection water, and so on. “For a small factory like ours, the implementation is not difficult, and masks are still scarce.

Under the guidance and assistance of the Dongguan Municipal Government, large manufacturing factories in Dongguan are resuming work, but some factories are slightly understaffed. “China Economic Weekly” reporter found several recruitment information from several large factories in Dongguan on the recruitment website, including Dongguan South CIMC Logistics Equipment Manufacturing Co., Ltd. and Dongguan Automobile Factory.

On February 5th, the Dongguan Municipal Government issued the “Guidelines for Resumption of Work after the Holidays of Enterprises During the Prevention and Control of Pneumonia of New Coronavirus Infection in Dongguan City. “document and mentioned 20 specific measures. Articles 16 and 17 mentioned the social security benefits for enterprises, including “affected enterprises can defer payment of social security expenses” and “relevant social insurance services can be re-scheduled after the epidemic is over.”

On February 7th, the Dongguan Municipal Government also issued “Several Measures on Supporting Enterprises and Enterprises to Overcome Difficulties in Fighting Epidemic Prevention and Control” to help enterprises stabilize production and resume production, reduce enterprise burdens, and strengthen enterprises involved. In 15 aspects including service guarantee, we will fully support and organize the promotion of enterprises in this city to resume work and resume production.

In terms of stabilizing production and resuming work, the Dongguan Municipal Government has proposed to provide special support of up to 300,000 yuan to human resource agencies that actively assist enterprises in solving the problem of “recruitment difficulties”; in terms of rent reduction, the “two exemptions and two reductions” has been proposed. “That is, the city-owned township property exempts the rented enterprise from 2 months of rent, and the village property levies half of the rent from the rented enterprise for two months. It is expected that the company will reduce the rent burden by more than 1.4 billion yuan. In terms of fee reduction, Dongguan The municipal government proposed the implementation of “non-stop payment of arrears” in the use of electricity and water by enterprises during the epidemic, and implemented a policy of temporarily retiring 80% of the tourism service quality guarantee deposit. These policies are currently being implemented.

“This epidemic incident has taught me a great lesson: No matter what the size of the company, you must try to make an emergency plan and consider the worst case scenario.” Chen Xingqiao said that he had not seriously considered this issue before that.


(At the request of the interviewer, Chen Xingqiao and Shen Gang are pseudonyms in the text)


The article is from the public account: China Economic Weekly (ID: ChinaEconomicWeekly) , Author: Deng Ya Man.