BEIJING, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- China cities including Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Chongqing have recently issued measures to accelerate building themselves into international consumption centers in a comprehensive way, reported Economic Information Daily on Thursday.
In the meantime, the central government is mulling improvement of favorable policies such as entry and exit facilitation, payment convenience, departure tax refund and tax-free industry development to help realize the goal.
Analysts pointed out that the move is expected to provide strong support for the high-quality development of China's economy.
The Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce made it clear recently that it will strive to make full use of digital economy during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) and promote "cloud shopping" in Shanghai in a bid to build itself into an international consumption center.
Sun Yao, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau noted on Monday that it is necessary to accelerate the transformation of key business districts, strengthen the support of technology in the upgrading of traditional consumption patterns and speed up the deployment of intelligent information consumption networks so as to forge Beijing into an international consumption center.
Qingdao, a city in east China's Shandong Province, proposed to make ocean, history, food, night economy, big events and other local elements serve as driving forces to build itself into a well-renowned international consumption center.
At the national level, more favorable policies are expected to be implemented soon. In March, 23 departments jointly issued a guideline proposing to build a batch of international consumption centers with good basic conditions, great consumption potential and high level of internationalization.
Recently, the Ministry of Commerce has pledged to make the cultivation of international consumption centers as an important part of consumption upgrading.
Fu Yifu, a senior researcher of Suning Institute of Finance, noted that this move will help form a strong domestic market, radiate surrounding areas, boost the high-quality economic and social development and further enhance the competitiveness of related cities in the world.
Wang Qing, deputy director of the Research Institute of Market Economy of the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that building international consumption centers is a crucial way for China to further increase consumption and form a consumption-led development pattern, which will help improve the quality of urbanization and foster global competitive edges. (Edited by Zhang Yuan with Xinhua Silk Road, zhangyuan11@xinhua.org)
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