Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 2. Title: Efforts to restore and expand consumption to promote the steady growth of foreign trade and foreign investment – the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce talks about new measures to promote high-quality business development
Xinhua News Agency reporters Xie Xiyao, Pan Jie, Han Jianuo
The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to focus on promoting high-quality development and actively build a new development pattern. Business work such as consumption, foreign trade, and foreign investment is an important part of the domestic cycle, an important hub connecting the domestic and international dual cycles, and plays an important role in building a new development pattern. This year is the first year to fully implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. How to promote new steps in commercial work? What new measures are there? The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce responded at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office on the 2nd.
Efforts should be made to restore market vitality, promote consumption upgrades and release potential
The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to strengthen the fundamental role of consumption in economic development. The central economic work conference held at the end of last year made arrangements to give priority to the recovery and expansion of consumption.
According to Wang Wentao, Minister of Commerce, the “basic role” is to emphasize consumption in terms of function, and the “priority” is to emphasize consumption in terms of status. “Recovering” consumption is mainly based on the current situation, restoring some consumption that was previously affected by the epidemic, especially offline contact consumption, and focusing on improving consumer confidence and restoring market vitality. “Expanding” consumption is to focus on the long-term, improve consumption conditions, innovate consumption scenarios, and focus on promoting consumption upgrades and potential release.
Automobiles, home appliances, home furnishing, and catering account for a quarter of total consumption, and are key areas for consumption recovery and expansion. Wang Wentao said that a series of policies for new energy vehicles introduced last year had obvious effects. Now every 4 vehicles sold, one is a new energy vehicle. This year, while implementing the existing policies, we will actively introduce new policies and measures. Support the healthy development of new forms and models of consumption and stimulate the vitality of consumption.
Talking about promoting the cultivation and construction of international consumption center cities, Wang Wentao said that he will continue to focus on the three keywords of “international”, “consumption” and “center”, strengthen the functional positioning and characteristics of each city, and promote the implementation of the cultivation and construction plan in a project-based and list-based manner , optimize the consumption carrier and environment, lead the new trend and fashion of consumption, and play a demonstration and leading role in expanding and restoring consumption.
County-level commerce connects urban and rural areas, and strengthening county-level commerce is conducive to promoting rural consumption. According to Chen Chunjiang, assistant minister of the Ministry of Commerce, the “Three-Year Action Plan for County Area Commerce” will be implemented in depth this year, and a relatively complete county and rural commercial system will be basically established in qualified counties by 2025; “Township Daji” and new rural convenience stores; develop live broadcast e-commerce, cultivate agricultural product brands, drive upward consumption of agricultural products and increase farmers’ income.
Stable scale and excellent structure of foreign trade to enhance comprehensive competitiveness
In 2022, the scale of China’s foreign trade will hit a new high. Talking about this year’s foreign trade situation, Wang Wentao said frankly that the pressure on foreign trade has increased significantly this year, mainly due to the weakening of foreign demand. In addition, the risk of world economic recession is rising, and protectionism, geopolitics and other influences also bring challenges. “This year’s global foreign trade ‘cake’ is less likely to become bigger, so it is necessary to think about how to continue to make use of our advantages.”
The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to speed up the construction of a trade power. Wang Wentao said that there are three pillars for a strong trade country, that is, trade in goods must be upgraded, trade in services must be innovative, and digital trade must be developed. We will make efforts from these three pillars to stabilize the scale, optimize the structure, and enhance the comprehensive competitiveness of foreign trade.
In terms of stabilizing scale, one is to stabilize expectations through stable policies, constantly listen to the opinions of relevant provinces and enterprises, and introduce policies in line with international rules to promote the development of foreign trade; the other is to stabilize the market. To develop, Latin America and the countries along the “Belt and Road” have great market potential; the third is to stabilize trade channels, use traditional channels such as the Canton Fair to carry out trade promotion activities, and at the same time encourage enterprises to participate in overseas exhibitions, and encourage local governments, trade promotion agencies, and business associations to carry out multiple activities various forms of trade promotion activities.
In terms of optimizing the structure, firstly, optimize the trade mode, strengthen the general trade, support the gradient transfer and upgrade development of processing trade, and coordinate and promote the healthy development of new business models and models such as cross-border e-commerce, overseas warehouses, and bonded maintenance; secondly, optimize foreign trade Supply chain layout, improve the quality of trade in the eastern region, and increase the proportion of trade in the central and western regions and the northeast region; the third is to optimize the product structure, cultivate new momentum for trade, support local governments to explore and hold digital trade exhibitions, and accelerate the digitalization of global trade in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. district construction.
Hold “Invest in China Year” to make greater efforts to attract and utilize foreign capital
“Greater efforts to attract and utilize foreign capital” is one of the important deployments of the Central Economic Work Conference for 2023 economic work last year. Wang Wentao said that more efforts will be made in the four aspects of investment promotion, service improvement, opening up, and environment optimization, and strive to retain high-quality stock foreign capital and introduce more high-quality foreign capital.
According to reports, the Ministry of Commerce will hold the “Invest in China Year” series of activities for the first time this year to coordinate the resources of all parties and promote the normalization, serialization and diversification of investment promotion. On the one hand, build a platform and unblock channels to “please come in”, show investment opportunities across the country, and show the golden signboard of “Investing in China”; The role of overseas business agencies and investment promotion agencies will create a better platform and bridge for domestic and foreign investment.
Wang Wentao said that in response to issues such as government procurement, bidding, and standard formulation that foreign-funded enterprises have concentrated on, they will study and introduce policies and measures with relevant departments to ensure equal participation of foreign-funded enterprises. At the same time, establish and improve the inter-departmental complaint coordination mechanism at all levels, improve the level of complaint handling, increase the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investment, and create a market-oriented, legalized, and international first-class business environment.
“We will study and promote the reasonable reduction of the negative list of foreign investment access, and further cancel or relax the restrictions on foreign investment access, especially taking advantage of platforms such as the Pilot Free Trade Zone, Hainan Free Trade Port, service industry expansion and opening-up demonstration pilot, and national economic development zones. First try and lead the role, promote greater intensity and higher level of opening-up in accordance with international high-standard economic and trade rules, and steadily promote institutional opening-up.” Wang Wentao said.