On February 5, Huai'an City issued the Several Measures on Supporting Enterprises, Stabilizing Employment, Improving People's Wellbeing, and Promoting Consumption during the Spring Festival of 2024, aiming to benefit both enterprises and citizens and have a head start in the new year by ensuring orderly production, stable employment, improved livelihoods, and robust consumption during the Spring Festival.

The Measures focus on four aspects, namely supporting enterprises, stabilizing employment, improving people's wellbeing, and promoting consumption. Ten specific measures have been proposed to ensure full production capacity for enterprises and support them in recruiting migrant workers returning home. Meanwhile, a direct service mechanism will be established and the names and mobile phone numbers of personnel in charge of departments or offices responsible for the implementation of the corresponding measures will be provided to the public, so as to ensure that all the measures can be fully implemented to benefit enterprises and citizens.

Ensure Full Production Capacity for Enterprises

Huai'an will set up three-tier economic operation special working groups, enhance the dynamic monitoring of the operations and management of enterprises above the designated scale during the Spring Festival, and promptly respond to any emerging and trending issues in economic operation. It will encourage key enterprises with considerable market share, profit, and order volume to maintain continuous production or adopt staggered working hours, while guiding enterprises to resume operations and production as soon as possible after the Spring Festival.

All counties and districts (industrial parks) are encouraged to evaluate the performance of manufacturing enterprises above the designated scale based on indicators such as industrial output value, invoiced sales, and electricity consumption in the first quarter, and formulate incentive policies according to actual conditions to reward enterprises for their contributions or subsidize their production costs.

Support Enterprises in Recruiting Migrant Workers Returning Home

Huai'an will conduct surveys on enterprises' labor demands, develop recruitment plans for major projects, and assign special personnel to assist enterprises with recruitment. It plans to organize over 250 special recruitment events targeting migrant workers returning home in public human resources markets, township markets, and other places.

For migrant workers who are registered citizens in Huai'an and return to the city for employment in local enterprises, a one-time employment subsidy of RMB 1,000/person will be provided after they sign labor contracts lasting over six months and make social insurance contributions for more than three months.

For human resources service agencies or other employment service organizations that help migrant workers returning to Huai'an find employment in local enterprises, a one-time referral subsidy of RMB 1,000/person will be provided after the workers sign labor contracts lasting over six months and make social insurance contributions for more than three months.

Support Enterprises in Recruiting Migrant Workers Outside of the Province

Huai'an will provide a subsidy of no more than RMB 4,000/event/enterprise for enterprises participating in recruitment events organized by the city or local counties (districts) in places outside of Jiangsu Province.

For migrant workers who are from outside the province and come to Huai'an for employment for the first time by the end of March, a one-time employment subsidy of RMB 1,000/person and a transportation subsidy of RMB 500/person will be provided after they sign labor contracts lasting over six months and make social insurance contributions for more than three months.

For human resources service agencies or other employment service organizations that help migrant workers from outside the province to find employment in Huai'an for the first time by the end of March, a one-time referral subsidy of RMB 1,500/person will be provided after the workers sign labor contracts lasting over six months and make social insurance contributions for more than three months.

Enterprises that provide chartered transportation for non-local workers seeking employment in Huai'an will receive a transportation subsidy equivalent to 50% of the transportation cost from local authority of the county or district (industrial park) where they are located.

Support Enterprises in Retaining Employees and Stabilizing Employment

Huai'an will provide a subsidy of RMB 1,200/person for enterprises that hire unemployed university graduates and registered unemployed young people aged 16-24 for probation and have a retention rate of over 50% among those workers.

A subsidy of RMB 500/person will be given to enterprises that provide pre-employment training for newly recruited employees; for enterprises that hire workers facing employment difficulties and pay social insurance for them, a subsidy will be provided based on the actual social insurance payments they make for the workers.

Huai'an will purchase new year supplies, provide dinner at the New Year's Eve, send gifts and red packets, and organize other activities for non-local workers staying in Huai'an for the Spring Festival. Relevant officials will visit enterprises with a large number of non-local employees and employees facing difficulties, and provide them with necessary support.

Improve Project-based Services

Huai'an will establish convenient channels for project approval and project-based service appointment. The contact information of personnel responsible for project approval and project-based service appointment will be provided to the public through the 12345 hotline, news media outlets like Huai'an Daily, WeChat official accounts like Huai'an News Release and Huai'an Online, as well as the websites of relevant departments at city and county levels. Comprehensive services will be offered for major projects around the clock to make sure that the registration and approval procedures for various projects can be completed as usual during the Spring Festival and the 231 major industrial projects can commence in the first quarter as planned. Furthermore, Huai'an will carry out the work of ensuring energy and power supply.

Launch "Happy Huai'an, Secure Consumption" Spring Festival Consumption Promotion Activities

Huai'an will collaborate with "10,000 stores in ten cities" to organize over 30 "Happy Huai'an, Secure Consumption" Spring Festival consumption promotion activities. During the Spring Festival, in collaboration with online platforms, Huai'an will organize businesses to conduct "Chinese New Year Takeaways", "Non-stop Spring Festival", "Shared Reunion Meals", and other promotional activities, providing discounts to promote consumption.

In addition, Huai'an will launch automobile consumption promotion activities, organize a Q1 automobile sales competition, introduce promotional measures such as car loan subsidies, trade-in subsidies, purchase tax subsidies in collaboration with automobile sales enterprises, and provide rewards to outstanding enterprises participating in the competition.

Huai'an will also collaborate with major commercial complexes throughout the city to launch the "Eight Days of Joy in the Chinese New Year" event, which will offer discounts on new products, digital RMB red packets, and shopping discounts for certain purchase amounts, among other promotional activities.

Conduct "Good Housing, Famous Enterprises" Online and Offline Sales Promotion Activities

Huai'an will organize sales promotion activities such as online and offline real estate exhibitions for the "Good Housing, Famous Enterprises" campaign, encourage enterprises to offer more favorable housing purchasing policies and discounted housing options, guide the collaboration between real estate developers and real estate brokers to prioritize the provision of high-quality housing options and meet the demand of homebuyers for property replacement. It will also offer such homebuyers who meet the refund policy requirements a refund of the personal income tax arising from selling their old houses.

Additionally, Huai'an will establish a coordination mechanism for real estate financing and provide efficient and prompt financial services for both enterprises and individuals. It will offer offline appointment services for housing transactions during the Spring Festival, facilitating the offline processing of property sales contract registration and filing for citizens.

Launch Cultural and Tourism Activities Benefiting the People

Huai'an will launch a cultural and tourism consumption season event under the theme "Joyful Celebration of the Chinese New Year: Explore Huai'an with Excitement for a Happy Spring Festival", distribute 60,000 cultural and tourism consumption vouchers, and collaborate with cultural and tourism businesses to offer products and scenic spot ticket packages at special discounts.

Municipal and county-level art galleries, cultural centers, libraries, and Chinese opera theaters and troupes will be available for free to the public. Over 170 events will be organized, including study activities centered on intangible cultural heritage and the exhibitions of fine calligraphy and paintings for the celebration of the Spring Festival.

In addition, Huai'an will organize a "Spring Festival in Twin Parks" activity, combining the strengths of the Journey to the West Theme Park and the Huai'an Fantawild Glorious Orient theme park to celebrate the Chinese New Year. It will also hold "Brilliant Lights" light shows in the White Horse Lake ecotourism scenic area, Caoyun Gate, and Xiaohu Park. Moreover, it will hold "Goodies for the Festival" shopping season events in King's Luck Scenic Area and Jiangba, hold traditional Chinese New Year events with the theme "Folk Customs for the Spring Festival" in Yaoxiangguo Cultural Tourism Area, Shuifu City, and Guishan Village, and hold "Charming Cultural Tourism" carnivals in Hexia Ancient Town and the Liyunhe Canal Cultural Corridor Qingjiangpu Scenic Area.

Optimize the Consumer Market Environment

During the Spring Festival, Huai'an will allow stores along some primary or secondary trunk roads in the urban area, such as supermarkets, clothing stores, and fruit stores, to display some products within a "1-meter" range outside their doors in an orderly and standard manner, provided that such displays will not affect traffic safety, occupy fire exits or tactile paving, or infringe upon the interests of others. The city will adopt inclusive, prudent, and flexible enforcement measures to provide "one-on-one, end-to-end" administrative service guidance for publicity and sales promotion. Additionally, it will encourage businesses and merchants to implement a 7-day unconditional return policy in offline stores. Meanwhile, it will encourage supermarket chains and chain stores to implement a cross-store and cross-location unconditional return policy. Moreover, it will enhance law enforcement efforts in rural market supervision and crack down on the violations of food safety regulations.

Optimize Convenient and Beneficial Services for the People

During the Spring Festival, city buses and streetcars in Huai'an (including Qingjiangpu District, Huai'an Economic and Technological Development Zone, Huai'an Industrial Park, Huai'an Ecological Cultural Tourism Zone, and some towns in Huai'an District and Huaiyin District) will exempt passengers from fares; public sports venues such as Huai'an Sports Center, gymnasiums, and community fitness centers will be open to the public for free or at a low admission charge. Online administrative services for vehicles and drivers will remain available the whole time; Huai'an Vehicle Administrative Office will be open at designated hours to handle vehicle registration and the issuance and review of the driver's license as usual, and some vehicle inspection agencies in the urban area will provide inspection services to the public; Huai'an Vehicle Administrative Office will make a special examination arrangement during the Spring Festival. Reminders and notifications will be provided regarding minor parking violations on roads under the jurisdiction of urban management.

The Measures will be effective from the date of announcement and will be applicable during the Spring Festival period, which is from February 10th to February 17th. Measures without specific time limits will remain effective until March 31st.