Government staff members help business representatives apply for business licenses online in Yiwu. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang province, is taking significant action to offset the impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak to its economy and write a new chapter of high-quality development.

Based on the city's overall plan, the annual economic targets of Yiwu in 2021 remain unchanged, and 60 percent of its annual investment should be completed in the first half of this year.

In recent years, Yiwu has been a leader in developing the local economy. Its construction projects serve as the carrier to expand its investment. The city now has 357 key projects in progress.

Yiwu started from scratch to develop the photovoltaic industry, which has achieved favorable results. The industry generated an output value of 5.6 billion yuan ($786.21 million) last year. That amount is expected to reach more than 15 billion yuan this year, according to the local government.

Jinko Solar, a solar power energy company, recently invested 11 billion yuan in Yiwu. The first phase of the project went into operation this month.

With a total investment of 10.2 billion yuan, JA Solar, another bigname company, also engaged in Yiwu's solar power industry. It completed an online contract signing with the city and the project began construction this month.

After investing a total of 6 billion yuan, Trina Solar has also seen its project set up in the city. Trina's project has been under construction since last June.

Risen Energy invested 2 billion yuan in Yiwu to develop a solar project, the construction of which was completed at the end of 2019. The project reached an output value of 420 million yuan in the first quarter of 2020.

Yiwu's efforts made in both normalizing epidemic prevention and control and promoting economic and social development have achieved initial successes.