An excellent platform for demonstrating China's consumption power and promoting the two-way flow of resources at home and abroad-the
first batch of international consumption centers will be in five places ("14th Five-Year Plan", new aspects of opening up to the outside world ③)
The "14th Five-Year Plan" has a clear outline to promote consumption in an all-round way and cultivate and build an international consumption center city.
The "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan for Business Development" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan") issued a few days ago further proposes to cultivate a number of comprehensive international consumption center cities with international competitiveness and influence, and promote the formation of a number of radiating neighboring countries and regions. Specialized regional international consumption center city.
On July 19, Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao announced at the work promotion meeting for cultivating international consumption center cities, with the approval of the State Council, the first to carry out the cultivation and construction of international consumption center cities in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin, and Chongqing.
Why does the international consumption center city spend the above 5 places?
What impact will this have on China's opening-up pattern?
Why these 5 cities?
——Good location conditions, large consumption scale, high degree of openness, and strong policy attractiveness
In 2019, 14 departments including the Ministry of Commerce jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on the Cultivation and Construction of International Consumption Center Cities", proposing that it will take about five years to cultivate and build a group of international consumption center cities.
Since then, more than 20 cities have begun sprinting towards this goal.
In addition to first-tier cities, second- and third-tier cities such as Hangzhou, Wuhan, Nanjing, Jinan, Qingdao, Dalian, Ningbo, and Xiamen are also actively striving to build international consumer centers, and have successively issued special policy plans.
In the end, the first batch of international consumption center cities will be in Bei, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin and Chongqing.
Why these 5 cities?
Excellent location conditions-Shanghai has the Shanghai Port, which ranks first among the top ten ports in the world, and rejuvenates the port and the city through business; Beijing and Tianjin are the dual centers of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei in the "capital economic circle", and it is easy to form a linkage effect ; As one of the core cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Guangzhou can connect with the Pearl River Delta manufacturing industry and the open system of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and better integrate into the global market in terms of consumption; Chongqing is the only one of these five cities. Western cities connect the east and the west, connecting the north and the south.
Large scale of consumption and good quality-in the first half of this year, the total retail sales of consumer goods in Shanghai reached 904.844 billion yuan, a growth rate of 30.3%, ranking first in the country; the total amount of retail sales in Beijing was 722.75 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21%; total retail sales in Guangzhou 503.448 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 19%; Chongqing's total retail sales of 689.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 29.9%; Tianjin's total retail sales increased by 17.2%.
Looking back at last year, under the impact of the epidemic, the total amount of retail sales in Shanghai, Beijing, and Chongqing exceeded 1 trillion yuan, and Shanghai and Chongqing also achieved positive growth.
High degree of openness-high degree of openness is the commonality of these 5 cities.
Zhao Ping, vice president of the Research Institute of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, told our reporter: "These five cities rank among the top in the country in terms of international brand goods and services, the number of foreigners, international flights, and train cruises, and they have a good foundation for internationalization." Specifically, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou represents the highest level of opening up of domestic cities; Tianjin, as the earliest commercial port in China in modern times, has early foreign investment and contains rich business genes; Chongqing is a strategic fulcrum for the development of the western region, the "Belt and Road" and the Yangtze River economy The strategic position with connecting points is becoming increasingly prominent.
In addition, these five cities all have strong policy attractiveness, with policies such as low tax rates, easy tax rebates, and convenient entry and exit, which have enhanced the attractiveness of consumption.
At the same time, it has a strong commercial appeal, with a large number of business circles and a large scale of consumption.
Cultivating and constructing international consumption center cities means that these cities will stand at the intersection of the domestic and international double cycles, play a strong support role for domestic demand, and show the world the power of China's consumption.
How to build?
——Focus on "international", closely follow "consumption", and highlight "center"
The "Plan" puts forward in the form of a column that the construction of an international consumption center city should establish a cross-departmental work mechanism, determine the scope of cultivation and construction, and guide the development of cities with good basic conditions, large consumption potentials, high levels of internationalization, and outstanding radiation effects. Create, promote and improve supporting policies, and increase publicity and promotion.
During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, how will an international consumption center city be built?
Focus on "International"-Wang Wentao, Minister of Commerce, said that to cultivate international consumer centers, we must focus on "international", extensively gather global high-quality market entities and high-quality goods and services, accelerate the cultivation of local brands, and strive to build a gathering place that integrates global consumption resources .
"Through high-level opening up to the outside world, we will enhance the supply capacity of international products and services and the attraction to international consumers. In terms of innovation, we will make full use of the advantages of the approved free trade pilot zones in these cities to boldly experiment, venture, and reform independently. , Continuously improve the level of opening up, increase the attraction to international technology, capital, talents, goods, services and other essential resources, and improve international supply capabilities." Zhao Ping said.
Closely to "consumption"-promote the construction of business districts with high standards, lead the trend of consumption, strengthen market supervision services, and strive to create a new highland for consumption upgrades.
Zhao Ping analyzes: “In order to attract consumers from all over the world, it is necessary to have products and services that are popular in the world, which can bring unique consumption experience to foreign tourists. When building an international consumption center city, it must be built A good business environment encourages innovation and development of enterprises, vigorously promotes Chinese brands, develops characteristic industries, and enhances consumer willingness at home and abroad. "In recent years, various localities have actively promoted the construction of business circles.
Since the start of the pilot project for the renovation and upgrading of pedestrian streets in 2018, Chongqing Jiefangbei, Beijing Wangfujing, Tianjin Jinjie, Shanghai Nanjing Road, and Guangzhou Beijing Road have successively become "National Demonstration Pedestrian Streets."
Highlight the "center"-continue to strengthen the role of agglomeration, radiation and leading role, and form the center of global consumer agglomeration and regional linkage development.
The world's famous international consumer centers such as New York, Paris, Hong Kong, etc., have concentrated many world-renowned brands.
In recent years, the first store economy has emerged in China, providing Chinese consumers with global goodies.
Last year, 909 first stores landed in Shanghai, 250 landed in Beijing, 150 landed in Chongqing, 112 landed in Guangzhou, and 62 landed in Tianjin.
This year, the number of first stores in Beijing has exploded. In the first half of the year alone, 434 first stores and flagship stores were launched.
"In the future, China's international consumption center city may be a comprehensive international consumption center city with global influence and attraction based on the country, radiating the surrounding area, and facing the world. It may also be a specialized, characteristic, and regional international consumption center city. "Zhao Ping said.
How effective is it?
——Promote the two-way flow of resources at home and abroad, and promote the formation of a high-level opening-up pattern
In the first half of this year, the total retail sales of consumer goods nationwide was 21,190 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23%, and the contribution rate of final consumption expenditure to GDP growth was 61.7%-a set of data shows that consumption is the main force driving China's economic growth.
“At present, China’s economy is transforming from high-speed growth to high-quality development. The construction of an international consumption center city will enhance the role of consumption in economic development. This will help promote the high-level dynamic balance of demand-driven supply and supply-created demand, and promote the city and surrounding areas. The high-quality development of the regional economy." Zhao Ping said.
According to reports, there are still some problems that need to be resolved in the construction of international consumer centers.
First of all, the consumer environment and consumer market need to be improved urgently.
Zhang Jianping, director of the Regional Economic Research Center of the Academy of the Ministry of Commerce, told this reporter that on the one hand, the consumer environment should be more fair and transparent, maximize the protection of the rights and interests of domestic and foreign consumers, and promote the development of international consumer business.
On the other hand, the level of disposable income of domestic consumers is a key factor restricting the construction of international consumption centers. Reform of the income distribution system needs to make up for shortcomings in a timely manner to stimulate the potential of the consumer market.
The construction of an international consumption center city is not only an important part of the new round of reform and opening up, it will also play an important role in promoting China's opening-up pattern.
Zhang Jianping said that the construction of an international consumption center city will promote the two-way flow of consumption-related products, services, personnel, capital and other elements, which is conducive to the formation of a more open and competitive market structure, and it is also conducive to making full use of two markets and two resources to form A benign interactive relationship.
At the same time, the construction of international consumption centers will play an important role in the advancement of China's overall pattern of opening up.
"These cities will have influence, radiation and driving force on the Asia-Pacific region, the'Belt and Road' partners, and the global market. In addition, these cities will gather high value-added manufacturing, service industries and other industries to promote the formation of high-level foreign The open pattern supports the high-quality development of China's economy." Zhang Jianping said.
“As the world’s second largest economy and the second largest consumer market, my country’s development is still in a period of important strategic opportunities. Therefore, to build a new development pattern with the domestic large cycle as the main body and the domestic and international double cycles mutually promoting each other, we must concentrate our energy on doing a good job. For my own business, we will continue to expand and strengthen the domestic market to achieve high-quality development of the Chinese economy. At the same time, we will establish a new advantage in external competition and cooperation based on the super-large domestic market." Zhao Ping said.
Xu Peiyu
Xu Peiyu