ACCEPT Report No. 97 | Resuming Full Operations: Challenges and Countermeasures
First, according to the model-based prediction of the Academic Center for China's Economic Practice and Thinking (ACCEPT), if appropriate policies are introduced, the economic impact of the COVID-19 outbreak will be limited and controllable. If the outbreak is controlled and operations are fully resumed by the end of Q1 or by the end of the first half, the national economic growth will be dragged down by 0.17 or 0.36 percentage point respectively, and the original economic development goal can be achieved.
Second, COVID-19 is different in several ways from SARS, and China's economy is also at different growth stages when these two viruses hit the country. In the fight against COVID-19, the top priority is to resume operations safely and smoothly, which is more important than any financial and monetary stimulus.
Third, regulations and standards for preventing infection during economic activities must be promulgated, to strictly prevent the large-scale resurgence of the epidemic after resuming operations.
Fourth, it should be made clear that local authorities and enterprises will not be held accountable for any new COVID-19 case as long as they have strictly followed the scientific specifications for epidemic prevention and control after resuming operations. In this way, the local authorities may focus more attention on resuming operations, other than cutting the number of COVID-19 cases.
Fifth, the key industry chains should be reviewed, and the excessive capacity of the critical and deficit links should be subsidized, to prevent interruption of other enterprises due to the failure of key enterprises to resume operations.
Sixth, the government should update in detail the mortality rates of patients based on their ages and health status, to prevent panic in the society.
