On March 17, with the continued spread of the COVID-19 pandemic overseas, Guo Wenqing, General Manager and Deputy Secretary of the Party Group of China Minmetals, and concurrently Chairman of MCC, once again presided over a special meeting on overseas epidemic prevention and control and production and operation, listened to the report on recent pandemic prevention and control and production and operation situation of overseas enterprises and projects by MCC, Minmetals Development Co., Ltd. and China Minmetals Nonferrous Metals Co., Ltd., and carried out specific research and deployment.
Guo Wenqing pointed out that we should resolutely implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speeches and instructions, and coordinate the COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control as well as economic and social development. While the positive trend in the prevention and control work is now expanding, and the domestic pandemic has been under control, the COVID-19 pandemic continued to spread worldwide. Many countries faced very severe pandemic prevention and control situation, and some countries even declared a national emergency and took the national lockdown measures, causing certain impact and influence on the stable running of the world economy.
Guo Wenqing stressed that since the COVID-19 outbreak, China Minmetals had attached great importance to the pandemic prevention and control work of its overseas enterprises, and held general manager office meetings and special meetings for several times to study and deploy the pandemic prevention and control and production and operation work. As China's largest metal mineral enterprise, China Minmetals has a large number of overseas enterprises with large asset size and heavy production and operation tasks. As the COVID-19 continued to spread in countries and regions overseas, the overseas pandemic prevention and control and production and operation work suffered from some difficulties. Various overseas enterprises faced growing pressure in fighting against the pandemic while carrying out production and operation work.
Guo Wenqing has put forward six requirements to promote the pandemic prevention and control and orderly production and work of overseas enterprises, especially those in regions hit hard by the novel coronavirus.
Firstly, overseas enterprises should more resolutely follow the principle of stable operation during the pandemic prevention and control period. In the face of the uncertainties brought by the spread of the pandemic to the global economy, overseas enterprises should give top priority to the lives, health and safety of their employees, and firmly hold stable operation while successfully accomplishing various pandemic prevention tasks. They should strictly understand the risks of various projects, and objectively treat assessment tasks, but not blindly follow the business indicators and speed. All overseas enterprises should implement the principle of stable operation throughout the production and operation, and strive for the best operating results on the premise of ensuring employees' health and projects risk control.
Secondly, we should strictly manage people who will go abroad or return to China. At present, the key for China's pandemic prevention and control work is to prevent imported cases which have become the primary source of confirmed cases in China. Local governments are increasingly strict in taking quarantine policies targeting those who return to China. We should strictly manage China Minmetals' employees who go abroad and home, conduct corresponding registration and record, strictly follow the exit and entry management policies related to the pandemic prevention and control implemented by local governments, provide psychological counseling for employees in overseas enterprises, and resolutely put an end to imported cases caused by those who go home.
Thirdly, overseas enterprises should fully estimate and analyze the difficulties more accurately to strictly control various risks. Overseas enterprises should fully estimate and analyze the difficulties and impacts brought by the spread of the COVID-19 to their production and operations, and carefully prepare the countermeasures. They should always strengthen risk prevention, and strictly control and actively defuse various risks to ensure that no major accidents occur. Overseas enterprises should properly solve the problems of shortage of labor and insufficient supplies, grasp the production and operation speed, study and put forward risk control measures in line with local realities, and make risk contingency plans in advance in regions where the pandemic may continue to worsen. They also should strengthen the study on the risks amid contract implementation and contract performance process to ensure the comprehensive and effective control of all kinds of risks during the pandemic.
Fourthly, the group should strengthen the regular scheduling of major projects and key mines. During the pandemic prevention and control period, China Minmetals should comprehensively strengthen the regular scheduling of overseas major projects and key mines. MCC should further strengthen the situation studyand judgment on overseas projects and rationally allocate resources of metallurgical construction echelons to ensure the efficient implementation and stable progress of major projects. Under the premise of effective pandemic prevention and control, we should organize the production and operation of key mines in an orderly manner, continuously improve their benefits and optimize their operation plans. During the special period of pandemic prevention and control, closed and semi-militarized management was advocated in overseas mines.
Fifthly, we should actively conduct overseas trade business. Trade enterprises should always adhere to the business policy with both ends (raw materials and product sales markets) overseas, and large volume of import and export in a closed cycle to pay close attention to the market situation, attach great importance to risk screening, and use hedging and other derivative tools to hedge the risks such as spot price reduction and inventory impairment. We should maintain communication with upstream and downstream customers through multiple channels, timely adjust the pace and strategy of purchasing and selling according to actual situation, study and optimize commodity varieties and market structure at home and abroad, and rationally allocate resources. We will implement a responsibility system for trade business, and establish and enforce a strict accountability system for each business.
Sixthly, we should conduct financial capital risk supervision on some enterprises. During the special period of pandemic prevention and control, the group should set up the relevant financial indicators warning line taking market prospects, cost of capital, debt paying ability and asset liquidity of relevant overseas enterprises into comprehensive consideration to put some key enterprises with weak debt paying ability and prominent financial risks on its special regulation list, and conduct financial capital risk supervision on them.
Leaders from China Minmetals including Liu Caiming, Zhang Zhaoxiang, Jiao Jian and Ren Zhufeng attended the meeting. The leaders of the headquarters' departments and directly-managed enterprises of China Minmetals, including Zhang Mengxing, Wang Shilei, Zou Hongying, Yin Sisong, Xue Fei, Liu Lijun, Zhang Shuqiang, Zhao Zhi, Xing Yan, Xu Jiqing and Liu Qingchun attended the meeting.
Guo Wenqing making work arrangement
Site of the meeting
