The city government in one of China’s foremost seafood processing hubs has launched wage subsidies for seafood processors as well as marketing supports designed to nudge the local processing sector – traditionally dependent on exports – towards the domestic market.
Seafood processing firms in Dalian hiring registered unemployed or new graduates with contracts of a minimum one-year duration will get a one-off CNY 2,500 (USD 375, EUR 300) per employee to subsidize wages, as part of Dalian’s second package of supports for the sector this year designed to offset losses caused by COVID-19. Previous supports, issued in August, subsidized advertising and marketing efforts, electricity costs, and coronavirus testing and prevention measures. Under the program, companies are entitled to grants of up to CNY 2 million (USD 292,700, EUR 247,300) for advertising in China, as well as 50 percent of the cost of booths at major seafood expos, including next year’s Qingdao fair in 2021.
Under the new program, small- and medium-sized firms involved in cold chain management are entitled to a full refund of social security payments from the previous year if they keep employees in “stable jobs,” according to a statement jointly issued this week by multiple government agencies, including Customs and the Social Security Bureau.
The package also includes a 20 percent cut in port fees for companies involved in importing and exporting, and suspends the sales tax on processed seafood between 15 April and 31 December 2020. The municipal government has also pledged assistance with the rollover of loans and a reduction of interest rates on new loans, though precise figures are omitted from the government circular.
The Dalian government is also promising to streamline and digitize paperwork for licenses as part of its “reducing the burden” approach to keeping businesses afloat. Likewise, application procedures for domestic sales tax will be streamlined, allowing contract processing companies to switch focus to local sales if their overseas orders are suffering.
The move to the domestic market comes as the Chinese yuan this week hit a year-long high against the U.S. dollar, capping a recent appreciation trend that some economists in the Chinese business press have suggested is part of a government strategy to boost domestic consumption.
A stronger yuan typically hurts exports, but Dalian hasn’t given up entirely on the overseas market for seafood. Export tax rebate processing will also be speeded up and moved entirely online, according to the new government package, which also offers companies digital skill-building packages so they can improve sales on digital foreign trade service platforms.
Photo courtesy of guyue1983/Shutterstock
