Improving service consumption quality, a major focus of China's newly released plan to boost consumption, will help upgrade the consumption structure and stimulate demand, according to a researcher from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
Last week, China made public a plan on special initiatives to boost consumption, as the world's second-largest economy moves to make domestic demand the main engine and anchor of economic growth.
The plan, issued by the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council, aims to vigorously boost consumption, stimulate domestic demand across the board, and increase spending power by increasing earnings and reducing financial burdens.
The plan, organized into eight major sections, adopts a holistic approach by simultaneously addressing factors such as income growth, service consumption quality enhancement, big-ticket consumption upgrading, and consumption environment improvement.
With respect to service consumption, the focus of efforts will be on optimizing services for elderly care and childcare, boosting consumer services, expanding consumption in culture, sports, and tourism, promoting ice and snow consumption, and developing inbound consumption. Experts believe that with rising income levels, the consumer spending tends to shift in favor of services from goods, and service consumption in China will continue to grow.
"Service consumption is an important direction for optimizing and upgrading the consumption structure, and is also a key area for further boosting consumption. By optimizing and expanding service supply and enhancing consumption experience, we can better meet people's demand for diverse and high-quality services, thereby increasing consumers' sense of gain and happiness," said Chen Xi, an associate research fellow at the Institute of Macroeconomic Research under the NDRC.
China to enhance service consumption quality to drive consumption growth: official
China's southernmost island province of Hainan, which is intensifying efforts to build itself into a free trade port (FTP), stands ready to work with international counterparts to promote cooperation in five key areas, said the provincial governor while speaking at the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) 2025.
At a BFA subforum titled the Global Free Trade Ports Development Forum on Tuesday, Governor Liu Xiaoming addressed attendees, stressing that Hainan seeks to strengthen interconnectivity with free trade zones and ports around the world in terms of five key areas, including rules and mechanisms, infrastructure, trade in services and other industries, low-carbon and sustainable development, as well as dialogue and exchanges.
He said the province is currently ramping up efforts to build the Hainan Free Trade Port, with an aim to establish independent customs operations this year.
"The mission of the free trade zone port is to break down barriers, not to build walls, and to create opportunities, not to pursue their own interests. We are currently stepping up the implementation of the plan for turning the whole island into a separate customs zone and the implementation of core policies for the Hainan Free Trade Port. We are advancing preparations to ensure that the island-wide independent customs operations will be successfully realized as scheduled by the end of 2025," said Liu.
At the forum, guests said that the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port is an important measure for China to advance high-level opening up and has become a critical part of the building of an open world economy.
They also stressed that the Hainan Free Trade Port has built a bridge for win-win development for its partners worldwide by establishing partnerships with 38 free trade zones and ports across Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America.
Speaking at the subforum, Ban Ki-moon, the chairman of Boao Forum for Asia and the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, lauded the island province's efforts to build a thriving economy that will benefit the whole region. China's opening-up at a high level undoubtedly is of great significance and will bring new opportunities for Asia and the wide world. During the past seven years, my colleagues and I have witnessed with our own eyes how the province has transformed and reinvented itself. From infrastructure, services, tropical agriculture, to high-tech industries, Hainan is well on its way to becoming a powerful magnet for global talents, capital and resources," said Ban.
With the theme "Asia in the Changing World: Towards a Shared Future," the BFA Annual Conference 2025, which opened on Tuesday, will be held through Friday.
Hainan FTP to boost cooperation with global partners: governor
