Accelerate the release of demand and expand residents’ consumption

Twenty-three departments jointly issued nineteen measures.
Accelerate the release of demand and expand residents’ consumption

With the consent of the State Council, 23 departments, including the National Development and Reform Commission, the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China and the Ministry of Finance, jointly issued the Implementation Opinions on Promoting Consumption Expansion, Upgrading and Accelerating the Formation of a Strong Domestic Market (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions). The Opinions put forward 19 measures to promote consumption expansion and quality improvement from six aspects: market supply, consumption upgrading, consumption network, consumption ecology, consumption capacity and consumption environment, and help form a strong domestic market.

Expanding consumption is an important focus to hedge the impact of the epidemic.

The COVID-19 epidemic has had an impact on China’s consumption at present and even in the future, especially in the fields of shopping, catering, tourism, culture, education and entertainment.

"Releasing the suppressed and frozen consumer demand, cultivating and growing the new consumption and upgraded consumption that were born in the prevention and control of the epidemic, and making the physical consumption and service consumption be replenished, is one of the important points to hedge the impact of the epidemic." Chang Tiewei, deputy director of the Employment Income Distribution and Consumption Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that it is of great significance to promote consumption expansion and quality improvement while doing a good job in epidemic prevention and control.

Since last year, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council have deployed a series of policies to promote consumption, and various localities have successively introduced a number of targeted measures, such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and other places to build a new platform for consumption upgrading by cultivating night economy.

"The Opinions are the inheritance and development of previous policies." Chang Tiewei said that it not only inherited the previous policy orientations such as updating consumption and cultural tourism consumption, but also integrated into the new models, new formats and new industries in the current new consumption development.

To expand consumption, the key is to conform to the upgrading trend of residents’ consumption, break through the "blocking point" and "pain point" in the consumption field, break down the institutional and institutional obstacles that restrict consumption, and improve the governance capacity in the consumption field. The "Opinions" adhere to the structural reform of the supply side as the main line, seize the most potential consumption areas and focus on improving supply, constantly improve consumption policies, optimize the consumption environment, and stabilize consumption expectations.

Chang Tiewei introduced that the Opinions pay more attention to service consumption in terms of consumption types; Highlight holiday and night consumption in terms of consumption time; Accelerate the cultivation of new models such as online and offline integration in terms of consumption patterns; Focus on launching the county consumption engine in the consumption area; In terms of consumer groups, we will focus on enhancing the consumption power of low-and middle-income groups, and urge the vast number of urban and rural residents to consume, be willing to consume, and dare to consume.

Accelerate the construction of information infrastructure and build a "smart+"consumption ecosystem.

Cloud fitness, cloud shopping, cloud shopping, cloud reading … Since the outbreak, "cloud business" has developed rapidly. "Mobile phone ordering and delivery to home" has become the first choice for people to buy fresh food, medicines and other necessities during their stay at home.

"The new consumption formats and new models represented by online shopping have shown strong development potential in this epidemic." Chang Tiewei said that in 2019, the online retail sales of physical goods in China accounted for 20.70% of the total retail sales of consumer goods, which was about 8.52 trillion yuan. It is expected that the online retail sales of physical goods will exceed 10 trillion yuan this year.

"With the gradual control of the epidemic, China’s consumer market will usher in a new round of rapid development opportunities." Wei Wang, director of the Institute of Market Economy of the State Council Development Research Center, said that innovative online service models, especially in the fields of entertainment, education and medical care, have been recognized and accepted by consumers, which will greatly promote the further improvement of new formats and new models and drive more online service consumption.

The "Opinions" put forward four specific measures to cultivate new consumption formats and new models, and accelerate the construction of a "smart+"consumption ecosystem.

Accelerate the construction of a new generation of information infrastructure. Accelerate the construction and commercialization of information infrastructure such as 5G networks.

Encourage the development of new consumption patterns such as online and offline integration. Improve the "internet plus" consumption ecosystem, and promote online and offline interaction and business travel style coordination.

Encourage consumers to use green smart products. Encourage enterprises to use the Internet of Things, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other technologies to promote the intelligent upgrade of various electronic products, and accelerate the development of new information products such as virtual reality and wearable devices.

Vigorously develop the consumption pattern of "internet plus Social Service". All departments will promote the online and offline integration of education and training, medical care, aged care services, infant care, sports events and other service consumption.

"The Opinions proposes to build a’ smart+’consumption ecosystem to adapt to the development trend of smart and online consumption at this stage. While promoting consumption expansion and quality improvement, we will better lead the industry to intelligent and green development and promote the dual upgrading of industry and consumption. " Wang Yun, a researcher at China Macroeconomic Research Institute, said.

Continuously improve consumption capacity and build a consumption network integrating urban and rural areas.

The consumption pattern is wired online and offline, and there are cities and towns in the consumption space. To improve the quality and expand the consumption, it is necessary to realize the coordinated and interactive development of the urban and rural markets. What other "hard bones" are there to break through urban and rural consumption and expand grassroots and rural consumption?

"There is still a’ stuck neck’ link in the current consumer infrastructure." Chang Tiewei said, for example, the service consumption infrastructure is not perfect, the shortcomings of consumption facilities in some emerging urban areas and rural areas are prominent, and the distribution of urban commercial facilities is unreasonable.

Wei Wang said that in order to build a consumption network integrating urban and rural areas, on the one hand, we should promote the construction and development of consumption center cities, accelerate the development of middle and high-end consumption and service consumption markets, and form a group of international consumption center cities with large consumption scale, strong consumption radiation driving effect, outstanding consumption innovation leading ability and international influence, and become a leading demonstration base for China’s consumption upgrading and expansion.

The "Opinions" propose to further improve the tax-free industry policy and improve the supply of imported goods. We will support central cities to strengthen the "first-store economy" and "first-time economy", encourage internationally renowned brands to launch or simultaneously list new products in the China market, and adjust and optimize the collection links of some consumption tax items.

"On the other hand, we should speed up the sinking of the consumer market, build a platform for cooperation and exchange between Internet companies and poverty-stricken areas, promote the two-way circulation of industrial products to the countryside and agricultural products to the city, boost the sales of agricultural products with characteristics and advantages in rural areas, especially in deep poverty-stricken areas, and better meet the consumer demand in rural markets and carry out consumption poverty alleviation in depth." Wei Wang said.

The income level of residents is directly related to their consumption ability, and the expansion and upgrading of consumption cannot be separated from the improvement of consumption ability.

"To improve the consumption power of residents, we should pay attention to improving the income capacity of middle-income groups and enhancing basic security, and promote the reform of the income distribution system." Wei Wang said, smooth the upward flow channels for low-income groups, steadily expand middle-income groups, strive to narrow the income gap among residents, and accelerate the improvement of the income incentive mechanism for knowledge-based, skilled and innovative workers. (Reporter Li Xinping)