Promoting domestic consumption will be a strong driving force for China's high-quality development and the global economic recovery, said Huang Maoxing, a deputy to the 13th National People's Congress (NPC).

"Comprehensively promoting consumption" was listed as a focus of the country's future development in proposals for formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035 adopted at the fifth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Oct. 29, 2020.

"As one of the three major drivers of economic growth, consumption is playing an increasingly bigger role," Huang said in an interview with China.org.cn on March 2. "With a population of 1.4 billion, China is a huge consumer market. Tapping into the great potential of the market promises more robust growth for the Chinese economy."

In 2020, final consumption expenditure accounted for 54.3% of China's GDP, 11.2 percentage points higher than the total capital formation, the highest proportion of recent years, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

Huang, dean of the School of Economics at Fujian Normal University, said as China is fostering a new development paradigm, the promotion of domestic consumption will help boost and sustain the recovery of the global economic system.

"The sudden onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic caused enormous damage to the world economy, and the recovery is currently shaky," Huang said. "The new development paradigm features domestic and international circulations reinforcing each other, which means that bolstering the vitality of the domestic market will contribute to the recovery and growth of the world economy."

Huang emphasized the importance of forecasting and responding to new trends to comprehensively promote consumption. Technological innovations have spurred rapid changes across consumption categories in China, creating various new consumption models, he said.

Continuous efforts are needed to develop innovative products, services, platforms and sales approaches in line with new consumption trends and people's needs for a better standard of living, Huang continued.

He said online consumption, which exploded during the COVID-19 outbreak, has become a part of life for most Chinese people and will continue to rise as a crucial growth area. 

As their livelihood improves, Chinese consumers are increasingly looking for high-end, individualized and diversified products and services, which is also a trend that deserves much attention, Huang said.

Other growth drivers include green consumption, with overall improvements in the country's level of green development; and cultural consumption, especially tourism, as people pursue a higher quality of life, he added.

Huang said that in order to increase demand and promote consumption, efforts should also be made to further increase people's incomes and improve the income distribution structure by creating new jobs, strengthening social security, and other specific measures.

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)