BEIJING — China supports the action plan issued by the Group of 20 (G20) to deal with the impact of COVID-19 and will contribute to the G20 efforts to fight the pandemic through its own policy actions, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said on April 17. 

G20 finance ministers and central bank governors agreed on April 15 to suspend debt service payments for the world's poorest countries from May 1 until the end of the year.

China will implement more proactive fiscal policies with higher quality and efficiency, appropriately increase the fiscal deficit ratio, issue special government bonds, increase the scale of special bonds for local governments, and further cut taxes and fees, the MOF said.

In the process, China will strengthen macroeconomic policy coordination with G20 members and jointly support the implementation of the G20 action plan, the MOF said.

China will carry out specific work through bilateral consultations at the request of relevant poor borrowers in accordance with the G20 consensus, the MOF said.

To achieve better results of the action plan, China calls on multilateral creditors and commercial creditors to take appropriate actions as soon as possible to jointly help the poorest countries tide over their difficulties, the MOF said.

China has been providing support to the international community through other bilateral and multilateral channels, including donating $20 million to the World Health Organization and earmarking $10 million in its Poverty Reduction and Regional Cooperation Fund under the Asian Development Bank to support outbreak control programs in the region.