SCIO press conference on 'China's Epic Journey from Poverty to Prosperity' white paper
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E-mail China.org.cn, September 30, 2021
The Paper.cn:
A moderately prosperous society means there will be more active consumption activities created with higher level and quality. Under the current economic conditions, how will the government ensure the steady growth of consumption, and how will they promote the upgrading of consumption? Thank you.
Zhao Chenxin:
I will answer your question, thank you. It's a very good question. You all have a keen interest in consumption. Over the years, China's consumption has been scaled up in a steady manner and there has also been an improvement in the consumption structure. More business forms are thriving and we are continuing to optimize the consumption environment, to meet people's diversified and multi-tiered needs for consumption. In 2019, the per capita consumption expenditure of residents exceeded 20,000 yuan for the first time. Service consumption expenditure took up 45.9% of the per capita household consumption expenditure, nearly half of the total, 4.8 percentage points higher than that of 2015. Consumption drove GDP growth up by 3.5 percentage points, being the primary driving force of China's GDP growth for the 6th consecutive year in 2019. After the COVID-19 outbreak, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, all departments and local governments followed the general principles of pursuing stable performance and making new progress, coordinating epidemic control with socio-economic development. China's economy continues to show its resilience, and consumer demand has maintained a steady recovery. In the future, as China accelerates towards a new development paradigm, expands domestic demand and moves towards common prosperity, with the middle-income group expanding and new products, business forms and models emerging in consumption sector, I believe that China will continue to expand its consumption sector, and will not slow down its steps to boost consumption upgrading. The overall trend for meeting people's needs for a better life and unleashing consumers' willingness will not be altered.
Going forward, on the basis of strict epidemic control measures, we will stick to the strategy of expanding domestic demand, and coordinate supply-side structural reform and demand-side management. We will take targeted measures to tap into the household consumption potential, expand the scale of consumption and improve quality. We will carry out works in five aspects to boost and upgrade consumption, which are as follows:
First, we will work to enhance residents' abilities and willingness to consume. In accordance with routine epidemic control measures, we will improve the system to ensure daily life supplies, and roll out relevant polices and measures. We will take measures to both increase people's income and ease their burdens. We will work to build an innovative system that facilitates a virtuous cycle through the whole process of employment, the distribution of income and consumption so as to improve people's willingness and abilities to consume in a steady manner.
Second, we will work to provide better services and products. The expansion of consumption will be aligned with the goal of improving people's livelihoods. We will push forward the building of a supply system for high-quality consumption, and encourage enterprises to provide high-quality products and services at relatively low prices. We will make full use of various platforms to boost consumption, continue to carry out a series of consumption campaigns and leverage their roles in promoting consumption, such as "China Brand Day," National Consumption Promotion Month and the Brand and Quality Online Shopping Festival, among others. In addition, we will continue to convene China International Import Expo, the China International Consumer Products Expo and more, to pool together high-quality consumption resources at home and abroad to better meet the individual, diversified and medium- and high-end consumption needs of the Chinese people.
Third, we will work to unleash new driving forces for consumption. We will cultivate new types of consumption, stay attuned to the trend of consumption upgrading, and encourage the growth of new models and forms of consumption. We will promote the integrated development of online and offline consumption, and nurture a group of demonstrative cities and leading companies in promoting new types of consumption. We will ramp up efforts to promote green consumption, therefore leading to a green production. We will advocate green and low-carbon consumption and build a green consumption pattern. Efforts will be made to improve people's willingness to purchase green and low-carbon products and services.
Fourth, we will work to expand rural consumption. We will step up efforts to increase access to e-commerce and delivery services in rural areas, and push forward the modernization of circulation of agricultural products. Efforts will be made to improve the three-tiered e-commerce service system at the village, township and county levels, and the delivery logistics system as well. There will be an improvement in rural residents' willingness to consume when infrastructure is improved. We will work to improve services to facilitate people's life in rural areas. Efforts will be made to seek the digital and industrial development of agricultural products and services and make their development more brand-development focused and procedure-based. We will promote the transformation with regard to these aspects.
Fifth, we will work to optimize the environment for consumption, which is also a very important issue. We will strengthen the building of a consumer credit system and quality standard system. We will improve the mechanism on protecting consumers' rights and settling disputes in the consumption sector. We will carry out in-depth regulation on market orders and strengthen regulation on the quality and safety of consumer goods. We will ensure a consumption environment that is safe, credible and trustworthy.
That is my answer for your question. Thank you.
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