Customers visit a duty-free shop in Haikou, south China's Hainan Province, Jan. 31, 2021. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)
BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- China is stepping up policy-making to further tap the potential of medium- and high-end consumption in a bid to boost consumption-driven growth in the country, reported the Xinhua-run Economic Information Daily on Tuesday.
China's retail sales of consumer goods in the first quarter jumped 30.4 percent year on year, up nearly 10 percent over the same period of 2019. In particular, the consumption of medium- and high-end goods rose rapidly, and the duty-free sales in south China's Hainan province continued hiking. Meanwhile, some large shopping malls and Outlets have seen their sales up more than 15 percent compared with the figures in 2019, showed data released by the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) on last Tuesday.
The income of urban and rural residents increased rapidly along with the rebounding domestic economy. This is good for unleashing consumption potential. In the short term, the consumption of imported cosmetics, communication equipment and other high-end goods will remain strong. In the long run, the demands for high-quality, branded and international goods and services are expected to grow with the increasingly larger middle-income class, said Guan Lixin, duputy director of the circulation and consumption research department of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the MOC.
The 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) made it clear to promote consumption by developing some cities into international consumption hubs and building regional consumption centers. It also put forward to improve policies related to duty-free business in downtown areas and build a number of duty-free shops with Chinese characteristics.
Chinese government authorities are giving priority to optimizing consumption upgrading platforms so as to promote consumption with higher quality and at a larger scale.
The MOC, for example, vowed to accelerate the building of cities into international consumptions centers, transform pedestrian streets, and create medium- and high-end consumption carriers, according to Zhu Xiaoliang, director of the consumption promotion department of the ministry.
Zhu added that the MOC is working with the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs (GAC), the State Taxation Administration and other relevant departments to promote the formulation of preferential duty-free policies for imported commodities exhibited at the first China International Consumer Products Expo, which is scheduled to kick off in Haikou, capital city of Hainan in May. The GAC said it would continue improving supervision for offshore duty-free shopping and facilitate the construction of the Hainan international tourism consumption center.
Zou Jiayi, vice minister of finance, said that efforts will be made to promote zero-tariff policies for imported goods consumed by residents in Hainan.
With policy support, local governments have introduced a series of consumption promotion schemes.
For instance, Nanjing, the capital city of east China's Jiangsu province, rolled out a three-year action plan last Friday, pledging to build the city into an international consumption center, and make its total retail sales of consumer goods reach 890 billion yuan by 2023 and exceed one trillion yuan by 2025.
Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai and many other cities also specified that the focus to promote consumption in 2021 and during the 14th Five-Year Plan period is to build international consumption hubs, promote the implementation of policies on duty-free shops in downtown areas, improve the layout of duty-free shops, and continue attracting domestically and internationally famous brand owners to set up their shops and launch new products in the cities. (Edited by Su Dan with Xinhua Silk Road, sudan@xinhua.org)
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