Shanghai planned to restart business and services activities in phases from Monday, with shopping centers, supermarkets, pharmacies, wet markets, catering and hairdressing services to resume offline operation in an orderly manner, Shanghai city officials said on Sunday, while vowing to stabilize the development expectation of foreign companies in Shanghai.

The resumption of commerce and business activities will progress in phases on the principle of orderly openness, limited flow, effective control and classified management, Chen Tong, deputy mayor of Shanghai, announced at a press briefing on Sunday, noting that the number of commercial outlets in operation in the city has increased to 10,625 now from the lowest number of fewer than 1,400, with the daily number of delivery orders reaching 5 million.

According to Chen, shopping malls, department stores, supermarkets, convenience stores and pharmacies will resume offline operation gradually according to plan. Special passages will be designated for the businesses to limit the flow of personnel. Consumers can order products and services online and the products could be delivered to their doors, or they can buy the commodities and services at the stores.

Meanwhile, wholesale food markets are allowed to carry out contactless transaction in order to control the traffic. The wet markets will resume offline business in an orderly manner and the opening rates of vendors and customer flows will be curtailed according to plan.  
And, catering and hair-dressing services will resume step by step, with catering services ordered online and delivered in take-outs while the hair-dressing services will be implemented in planned shifts to limit consumer flows.

“We believe that the resumption of businesses will accelerate in pace, with the city’s epidemic situation is put under further control, and our city residents will enjoy more and better commercial services with more business outlets to be opened,” Chen said.

Chen noted that the epidemic prevention and control in Shanghai remains at a critical stage, changing from emergency response to regular prevention and control now.

In addition, Shanghai plans to proactively respond to foreign enterprises’ concerns and win their understanding and support to stabilize their development expectation in Shanghai, Gu Jun, director of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, said at the same press conference.

The Shanghai municipal commission of commerce has established a regular dialogue mechanism with consulates in Shanghai and foreign commerce associations to strengthen policy interpretation and information communication.

According to Gu, the commission of commerce has worked out a business resumption guidance for key foreign trade companies and has released two batches of “white lists” for 704 leading foreign trade companies, which cover retail, services, foreign company headquarters and port services.

About 63 percent of the first batch of 142 “white list” companies have resumed operation and the second batch of 562 companies are making preparations for restarting operation. The third batch of 820 white-listed companies will be released soon, Gu said.

The commerce commission also adopted a series of supplementary measures including issuing “electrical pass” for workers to return to their positions and improve the management of vehicles to secure the demand of transportation needed for businesses resumption.

Global Times