Phoenix TV:

My question is about consumption. This year, China launches a year-long program to stimulate consumption, and the MOC has organized and carried out a series of consumption promotion activities across the country, what measures will be taken next to spur the steady growth of consumption? Thank you.

Xu Xingfeng:

I appreciate your interest in this issue. Since the beginning of the year, the MOC has earnestly implemented the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, boosting consumption by implementing policies and hosting activities. We have carried out a series of innovative activities to mark this year of consumption promotion, achieving remarkable results. According to Ms. Li's briefing, in the first half of the year, retail sales of consumer goods totaled 23.6 trillion yuan, up 3.7% year on year. The highlights of consumption in the first half of the year can be summarized by four terms: 

First, "steady" growth in bulk consumption. In the first half of this year, passenger car sales grew 3.3% year on year. New energy passenger vehicle retail sales grew 33.1% and accounted for 41.8% of all retail sales for passenger cars. Home appliance and furniture retail sales of businesses above designated size grew 3.1% and 2.6%, respectively, year on year. 

Second, "rapid" growth in service consumption. In the first half of this year, the retail sales of services grew 7.5% year on year, 4.3 percentage points higher than the growth rate of retail sales of goods. 

Third, "vitality" in new types of consumption. For example, in the first half of this year, online retail sales grew 9.8% year on year. The online retail sales of physical goods grew 8.8%. Online retail accounted for 25.3% of total retail sales. 

Fourth, "new" momentum in rural consumption. In the first half of this year, retail sales in rural areas reached 3.14 trillion yuan, up 4.5% year on year, 0.9 percentage point higher than the growth rate in urban areas. Per capita consumption expenditure of rural residents increased 7.6%, with the growth rate 1.5 percentage points higher than that of urban residents. 

The third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee made arrangements for consumption related work. More recently, a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee emphasized the expansion of domestic demands with the focus on boosting consumption. The economic policies will be more focused on improving wellbeing and promoting consumption. We will thoroughly implement the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee, upholding the three important roles of commerce related work (an important part of the domestic economic flow, an important link connecting domestic and international economic flow, and an important factor for the new development paradigm), and continuing to boost consumption. We will focus on five aspects in the second half of this year:

First, to make this year's consumption promotion activities great successes, providing the opportunity to enjoy a better life. With the aim to meet people's demand and address people's concerns, we will plan and launch serial high-quality activities. The campaign will have four features. Firstly, we plan to create four waves of consumption: one at back-to-school season, one at harvest season, one at ice and snow season, and one at family reunion season. Secondly, we insist on providing benefits for all. We will host lifestyle fairs to offer convenience to people within a 15-minute radius within urban areas, spur agricultural development through e-commerce and let urban and rural residents enjoy the harvest together. Thirdly, we will focus on intelligently networked vehicles and smart home devices as well as trendy domestic brands, driving up the volume of consumption of quality products by promoting both long-standing and newly established brands as additional growth points. Fourthly, we plan to promote consumption with different themes, such as hometown flavors, beautiful elderly life, scaling the heights and enjoying autumn scenery, fun with ice and snow and a celebration of the new year. We will provide diverse and quality products, including scenic views and gourmet food, for consumers to savor a beautiful life. 

Second, to step up efforts to promote consumer good trade-ins with the aim to stabilize bulk consumption. We have already given a briefing on this. Now, I'd like to stress that we will do a good job in hosting supply and demand matching activities, boosting unimpeded upstream and downstream industries in production, supply, and marketing. In addition, we will enhance policy alignment to truly and directly benefit the public. 

Third, to promote the high-quality development of service consumption and foster new drivers for consumption. Currently, consumers increasingly value pleasant experiences as well as mental and physical health. Boosting service consumption is an important measure to further expand and upgrade consumption. We will push the issuance of comprehensive documents to promote the high-quality development of service consumption, and wider openness in an orderly manner in the fields of telecommunications, internet, education, culture and medical care as well as encourage consumption in culture, tourism, elderly care, child care and housekeeping, with the aim to meet residents' demands for service consumption. 

Fourth, we will expand new types of consumption and nurture new consumption drivers. In the long run, we need to foster new areas of consumer spending. New technologies, industries and models have boosted emerging forms of consumption, such as digital, environmentally-friendly, and health-related consumption. These are new areas in the field of consumption. We will develop digital consumption further by implementing actions to boost it and holding promotional activities, such as "E-commerce Boosts Agriculture" initiative and "Silk Road Cloud Products" E-commerce Festival. We will continue to encourage the purchase of new energy vehicles, green intelligent home appliances, and green building materials in rural areas. Additionally, we will expand smart consumption and artificial intelligence-enhanced consumption scenarios, promoting smart devices such as intelligent home appliances, mobile phones and wearable devices. We will also promote health-related consumption and continue to carry out various activities to bring healthy consumption options into thousands of households.

The third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee has outlined plans to actively promote the debut economy. We will accelerate implementation according to this arrangement, encouraging companies to release new products, open their first stores, and hold their first shows and exhibitions. We will continue to introduce new business forms, models, services and scenarios to meet consumer demand for fashion, quality and new trends.

The final point is to optimize consumption channels and promote consumption upgrading. We need to accelerate the development of international consumer center cities, pilot the reduction of restrictive measures on consumption in these cities, implement the debut economy, and improve cities' commercial capacity. We will continue to enhance the logistics system in rural areas and further unlock the consumption potential there. In short, urban and rural areas should interact with each other. That concludes my introduction. Thank you.