The Ministry of Commerce and eight other departments issued the "Several Policy Measures on Expanding Service Consumption," proposing 19 initiatives in five areas.

The Ministry of Commerce and eight other departments issued the "Several Policy Measures on Expanding Service Consumption," proposing 19 initiatives in five areas.

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Service consumption is an important support for improving people's livelihoods, and also an important direction for the transformation and upgrading of consumption. It plays a key role in promoting high-quality economic development. In order to implement the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, to further boost consumption and expand domestic demand, the following measures are proposed.

I. Cultivate Service Consumption Promotion Platforms

(1) Implement service consumption quality improvement and benefit actions. Issue the "Action Plan for Quality Improvement and Benefits in Service Consumption," proposing measures in areas such as strengthening policy support, building platforms and carriers, expanding openness, reinforcing standards leadership, and optimizing the consumption environment. Continue to deepen the creation of the “Shopping in China” brand, carry out a series of consumption-promoting activities during the “Service Consumption Season”, and organize service consumption promotion activities focused on areas close to people's lives, with great demand potential and strong driving effect, fostering service consumption brands and creating service consumption hotspots. (Led by the Ministry of Commerce)

(2) Build pilot cities for new consumption formats, models, and scenarios. Actively develop the “first-launch economy”, promote innovation and enrichment of service consumption scenarios, support cross-sector cooperation between high-quality consumption resources and well-known IPs, create a batch of new consumption scenarios integrating business, travel, culture, sports, and health, and cultivate a group of leading enterprises in new types of consumption. (Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce responsible according to division of duties)

II. Enrich High-Quality Service Supply

(3) Expand high-level opening-up of the service sector to the outside world. Promote the orderly opening of sectors such as internet and culture, expand pilot openness in fields such as telecommunications, medical care, and education. Accelerate comprehensive pilot demonstrations for service sector opening-up. Support the inclusion of more service consumption fields into the "Catalogue of Industries Encouraged for Foreign Investment", provide differentiated service supply. (Relevant departments responsible according to division of duties)

(4) Coordinate the use of existing funding channels to support the launch of quality work in literature, art, film and television, animation, etc., make full use of existing venues to create a number of theaters, museums, art galleries, and science and technology museums with strong regional influence, cultivate mass cultural activities and sports event brands, and optimize the supply of cultural products and services. Support world cultural heritage, cultural museums, intangible cultural heritage institutions, and historically and culturally famous cities to tap into the market value of traditional cultural IP, creating new scenarios for service consumption. Support eligible regions in using the online traffic of quality performances, animation, games, and film and television works to drive innovation in offline scenarios. (Responsible departments as specified)

(5) According to local conditions, extend opening hours of popular cultural and museum venues and scenic spots, optimize the reservation system, and encourage the adoption of no-reservation policies. Support innovative exhibitions in cultural and museum venues, where income may be used for performance incentives according to regulations; performance-based pay levels to be set reasonably based on results. Encourage museum units to open up collection resources and cooperate with social forces to develop cultural and creative or digital products, and promote cultural exhibitions organized on a market-oriented basis to enter malls, communities, and parks. (Responsible departments as specified)

(6) Encourage introduction of high-quality international sporting events, support local governments in hosting mass sporting events, and create a batch of well-known boutique events, professional leagues, and sports event-brand shows with independent IP. Continue to develop activities such as "Traveling with Events", "Sports Events into Scenic Spots, Streets, and Business Circles", and "Enjoying Spectacular Events, Tasting Chinese Cuisine" to leverage the driving effect of sports events and related activities. (Responsible departments as specified)

(7) Cultivate a diversified education and training market. Standardize development of non-academic training in culture, art, science, and sports; improve licensing conditions. Eligible online/offline non-academic training agencies may apply for administrative licenses as per the law. Encourage relevant institutions to conduct vocational skills training guided by marketization and to improve the training evaluation mechanism. Develop community colleges, citizen night schools, and elderly training in an orderly manner to provide high-quality skills and cultural and arts training, and encourage eligible areas to offer free or low-rent venues and facilities. (Responsible departments as specified)

(8) Accelerate the establishment of a long-term care insurance system, expanding its coverage. Strengthen the training of personnel in elderly care, housekeeping services, and long-term care, and implement relevant support policies. Carry out special job-skills training for domestic services and improve the skills-based professional evaluation system for domestic services, guiding domestic service enterprises to conduct pre-job, apprenticeship, and technician training, etc. (Responsible departments as specified)

(9) Eligible localities may provide venue support and reasonable operating subsidies to inclusive childcare institutions according to actual needs. Support qualified kindergartens to enroll children aged 2-3, develop community-embedded and family-based childcare centers, encourage employers to offer childcare services and provide policy support according to regulations. (Responsible departments as specified)

(10) Relax market access in mid-to-high-end medical care, leisure and vacation industries, reduce restrictive measures, attract more foreign and private investment, and increase supply of high-quality services. (Responsible departments as specified)

III. Stimulate New Increments in Service Consumption

(11) Attract more foreign visitors to China for consumption. Orderly expand the scope of unilateral visa-free countries, optimize and improve regional visa-free entry policies, continue to optimize visa policies and facilitation measures for foreigners traveling to China, such as communications, accommodation, and payments, and issue five-year multiple entry visas to more eligible individuals. Strengthen international promotion of China's cultural and tourism resources, leverage the advantages of cuisine, traditional Chinese medicine, cultural relics, and other traditional cultural resources, encourage travel agencies and online tourism platforms to launch tourism routes tailored to foreigners. Strengthen the "Study in China" brand to attract outstanding foreign students to study in China. Foster international medical services, exhibition markets, etc. (Ministry of Commerce leads; other responsible departments as specified)

(12) Expand digital service consumption, encourage e-commerce platforms to innovate digital service consumption scenarios integrating online and offline, and support digital transformation and promotion of life service enterprises. Recommend case studies of "Artificial Intelligence + Consumption", and continue to create new products, scenarios, and hot spots for information consumption. (Responsible departments as specified)

(13) Optimize student vacation arrangements and improve supporting policies. While keeping the total number of vacation days and the total teaching time unchanged, encourage eligible regions to scientifically adjust each academic year's teaching and vacation time based on factors such as climate, production arrangements, and implementation of paid leave systems for employees, explore the creation of spring and autumn vacations for primary and secondary schools, appropriately shortening winter and summer vacations to increase time for travel and other service consumption. (Responsible departments as specified)

IV. Strengthen Fiscal and Financial Support

(14) Coordinate the use of various funding sources such as central budget investment and local government special bonds to support the construction of cultural, tourism, elderly care, childcare, and sports service facilities that meet relevant requirements. (Responsible departments as specified)

(15) Support the Service Trade Innovation and Development Guidance Fund to invest in eligible service consumption enterprises according to market principles, and guide social capital to increase investment in related fields. (Responsible departments as specified)

(16) Comprehensively utilize monetary, credit, and other policy tools to support financial institutions in expanding credit investment in service consumption, strengthen credit investment for service consumption business entities, reasonably determine loan interest rates, and provide sustainable support for service consumption. Support financial institutions in developing innovative, specialized financial products and services targeted at the characteristics and financing needs of service consumption business entities. Encourage financial institutions to strengthen support for diversified service consumption scenarios, clusters, and key project construction. (Responsible departments as specified)

(17) Increase support for consumer credit. Support local governments in sharing consumer credit risks by establishing new or including existing risk compensation funds, conduct interest rate subsidies for consumer loans in key areas, and guide financial institutions and businesses to develop products and services suited to service consumption, forming a "government subsidy + financial support + business discount" approach. (Responsible departments as specified)

(18) Focus on service consumption areas closely related to residents' daily lives, provide fiscal interest subsidies for service industry business entities, help reduce business financing costs, and stimulate market vitality for service consumption. (Responsible departments as specified)

V. Improve Statistical Monitoring Systems

(19) Optimize service consumption statistical methods. Accelerate the calculation of regional service retail sales to objectively reflect developed regional service consumption. Innovate statistical monitoring methods, encourage eligible areas to use big data and other information technologies to monitor and analyze service consumption. (Responsible departments as specified)

All relevant departments and units must resolutely implement the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, and ensure thorough implementation of all policies and measures. The Ministry of Commerce should play a coordinating role in promoting service consumption development, lead the improvement of support policies, increase the supply of quality services, and better meet the diverse service consumption needs of the people.

Source: Ministry of Commerce

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