Recently, Shanghai People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (SPAFFC) convened a symposium for local Italy-funded enterprises, communicating with the enterprises’ representatives about the vital issues they are facing, and the policy supports they need to resume full production. Sha Hailin, Deputy Director of the Standing Committee of Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress and President of SPAFFC; Jing Ying, Vice President of SPAFFC, and other officials attended the symposium. Huang Feng, Director of SPAFFC and President of the Shanghai Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment (SAEFI), took the chair. Representatives from 8 Italian enterprises in Shanghai, including Sofima Industrial Filters (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Santoni (Shanghai) Knitting Machinery Co., Ltd., Bonfiglioli Drives (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Magneti Marelli Powertrain (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. and Chiesi Pharmaceutical (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. were invited to attend the symposium.
On this occasion, the enterprises attendees gave a detailed report on their work and resuming production, Italians’ employment and daily life in Shanghai and the impact on business brought on by the epidemic. Bonfiglioli Drives (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. extended their appreciation for all the support given by the Chinese government. After the outbreak, Bonfiglioli responded promptly by making resumption plans, setting up an emergency committee, avoiding large population gatherings as much as possible and purchasing medical supplies through multiple channels to protect the employees’ safety and health. We resumed work on February 10th, with productivity restored by 60%, and 2-3 weeks later achieved production resumption at full capacity. Bonfiglioli also pointed out common challenges for foreign-funded enterprises, focusing especially on the negative impact on supply chains and sales caused by the epidemic, and its request for government support in this sense.
Sha Hailin highlighted that, as humankind shares a common future, to help Italian enterprises in Shanghai is to help Shanghai and to help ourselves. SPAFFC, together with SAEFI, will analyze and summarize the issues raised by the enterprises, and coordinate with related officials to find suitable solutions to help foreign-funded enterprises overcome difficulties and achieve all-round production resumption in a steady and orderly manner.
