“White-list” mechanism for key enterprises helps China stabilize industrial and supply chains

China’s “white-list” mechanism, which has aimed to support the resumption of work for key companies and minimize the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, has helped the country to stabilize its industrial and supply chains.

A worker operates at a factory of Harbin Boiler Co., Ltd. of Harbin Electric Corporation in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, April 14, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Jianwei)

Efforts should be made to fully implement the “white-list” mechanism as a way to maintain the stable operations of key enterprises and the country’s industrial and supply chains, according to a conference presided over by Xin Guobin,vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), on May 17.

In April, the MIIT dispatched a work team to virus-hit Shanghai to support key companies in the city to resume manufacturing activities through a range of measures, including working to put in place an emergency coordination mechanism to address concerns related to industrial and supply chains. Efforts were made to pool resources and prioritize the resumption of work in the city’s 666 key enterprises in key sectors, including integrated circuits, automobile and equipment manufacturing, as well as biomedicine.

Xin introduced that the MIIT has identified 1,624 key enterprises in four batches and instructed 17 provinces to establish regional “white lists” for key enterprises.The ministry has also built a coordination platform for key industrial and supply chains.

The “white-list”mechanism ensures the unimpeded flow of industrial and supply chains despite special conditions such as the ongoing pandemic, said Han Jianfei, deputy head of the industrial economy research institute for the think tank China Center for Information Industry Development (CCID) under the MIIT.

China has also strengthened its push to include key medium, small and micro businesses on its “white lists.”

Thanks to the implementation of measures such as the “white-list” mechanism, enterprises in the industrial and supply chains affected by the pandemic are accelerating their work and resuming production.

According to statistics, as of May 13, more than 4,400 out of Shanghai’s 9,000-plus industrial enterprises above the designated size, or those with an annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan (about $2.96 million) each, had resumed their operations. Over 70 percent of more than 3,000 companies on the city’s “white lists” had restarted their business. Among these enterprises, more than 95 percent of the 666 enterprises on the city’s first“white list” and 80 percent of the 847 “white-listed” foreign firms had restarted their operations.