Government implements rent reductions, exemptions

"The government's rent reduction and exemption policy offers us timely assistance, eases operational pressure on us, and makes us more confident about the future," said Hu Taiqun, a local individual business operator in Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province. 

"I am the boss and the only employee of my shoe cleaning store. I did not have the time to deal with those complicated application procedures on-site before the new policy was rolled out," he said. Applying for rent exemptions online through the Guishangyi – a provincial comprehensive corporate service platform – Hu finally received a refund for the past three months of rent. 

To better help the local service industry recover amid the pandemic, Guiyang and Guian New Area implemented relief measures in mid-May this year, exempting individual business operators or small and micro-sized enterprises in the service industry whose businesses are in high- and low-risk regions from 6 months of rent. Other service providers of these kinds in other regions will get three months of rent refunded. 

Statistics from the Guiyang State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission show that so far, there are 2,247 market entities applying for rent exemptions, with 1,321 of them having been approved. The government has collectively returned 15.33 million yuan ($2.28 million) to market entities.