Authorities in East China's Zhejiang province recently issued a series of policies to help individual businesses weather the impact and headwinds caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.

The policies, which contain 25 measures, are the first in China that specifically cater to individual businesses. The measures are aimed at helping individual businesses reduce operating costs through the provision of special subsidies, strengthening of financial assistance and optimization of business environment.

Among the measures are tax exemptions for individual businesses with a sales revenue below 150,000 yuan ($22,292) for the year 2022, rent exemption for as long as six months, subsidies such as consumption coupons and service coupons, and easier access to credit and loans.

There are currently 5.547 million individual businesses in Zhejiang, accounting for 63.2 percent of the market entities in the province. These businesses hire 12.5 million people, roughly 30 percent of the total employed population in the province.

According to the policies, Zhejiang will fully leverage its ongoing digital reform. A digital platform for individual as well as small and micro businesses to learn more about preferential policies and receive related benefits has already been put in place.