A new survey by China Youth Daily found that 58.6 percent of respondents supported the rollout of tax and fee reduction measures to ease strains on firms and help mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic.

Besides cutting taxes and fees and offering discounted loan interest rates, over half of the respondents expected strengthened implementation of policies to promote work and production resumption, and the provision of special buses and trains to transport employees back to cities where they work.

In terms of the main difficulties faced by enterprises in achieving the full resumption of work and production, 44 percent of the respondents were concerned about the flow of logistics, while nearly 40 percent of people think the challenges include the unsynchronized resumption of enterprises in upstream and downstream industrial chains and insufficient funds.

Zhang Liqun, a researcher with the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that the full resumption of work and production has entered a crucial period. With regular epidemic control measures in place, efforts should be made to speed up the elimination of bottlenecks and the implementation of various measures to expand domestic demand.

The survey covered 2,015 people, 26.9 percent of whom live in first-tier cities, 48.4 percent in second-tier cities, and 20.6 percent in third- and fourth-tier cities. Enditem