On November 26, MOFCOM held a promotion meeting on consumption upgrade action plan in Beijing. The meeting implements the spirit of the fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, acts on the major decisions and plans by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council regarding consumption promotion across the board, and makes further plans to expedite the implementation of the consumption action plan and create new drivers of consumption promotion. Wang Bingnan, Member of the CPC Leadership Group of the Ministry of Commerce of PRC and Vice Minister of Commerce, attended and addressed the meeting. Representatives from local governments and businesses introduced their experience.

The meeting pointed out that consumption is the purpose and driving force of production and represents people’s needs for a better life, thus an important element in building the new development paradigm. MOFCOM attaches great importance to consumption’s role in economic development and has coordinated the work of epidemic prevention and consumption promotion. In 2020, commerce authorities at all levels spared no efforts to fight the virus, ensure supply, speed up urban consumption upgrade, boost rural consumption, steadily expand consumption of goods, promote services consumption, and create new ways to promote consumption. Solid progress has been made in the recovery of the consumption market. Consumption upgrade plays an important role in supporting high-quality development, nurturing a robust domestic market, and improving people’s well-being.

The meeting emphasized that next year marks the opening of the 14th Five Year Plan period. In terms of consumption promotion, local commerce authorities should adopt systematic planning and a holistic approach, leverage the roles of both market and government, let supply and demand drive consumption and strengthen coordination and collaboration so as to make new achievements. First, promote the expansion and improvement of urban and rural consumption by creating international consumption cities, promoting the pedestrian-only shopping street renovation and upgrading, optimizing the convenient consumption, and enhancing rural e-commerce. Second, tap into the potential of consumption of goods and services by stabilizing and expanding the consumption of automobiles, boosting the consumption of household appliances and furniture, expanding the consumption of imported goods, promoting food and beverage consumption, and launching new consumption promotion activities. Third, promote the innovative integration of traditional and new types of consumption by enhancing traditional consumption and creating new types of consumption. Fourth, create an enabling environment for safe and secure consumption by focusing on epidemic prevention and control, production safety, market order, market supply, and smooth operation of the market.

More than 120 heads of local commerce authorities and business representatives attended the meeting.