How to make consumption ＂hot＂

　　The Central Economic Work Conference regards "focusing on expanding domestic demand" as the primary task of economic work in 2023, and makes it clear that "restoring and expanding consumption should be given priority". Since the beginning of the year, various departments have made a series of arrangements to better play the basic role of consumption.

　　How to make consumption "hot"? How to solve the outstanding problems such as inconvenient consumption, unwillingness to consume, and fear to consume in order to release the consumption potential? Some deputies who participated in the two sessions of the National People’s Congress made suggestions.

　　Excellent supply to better meet consumer demand

　　Since this year, the consumer market has recovered steadily. The monitoring of business big data platform shows that during the Spring Festival, the passenger flow of key business districts in 36 large and medium-sized cities nationwide increased by 27.8% compared with the same period of last year, and the sales of key retail and catering enterprises nationwide increased by 6.8% compared with the same period of last year.

　　However, the potential of domestic demand still needs to be further released. According to the report of China Banking Research Institute, the rapid recovery of consumption "quantity" reflects the improvement of residents’ consumption and willingness to travel since the optimization of epidemic prevention and control measures, but the "quality" is relatively insufficient. Some consumer sectors are facing insufficient supply, and there is still room for adjustment in the future.

　　Zhou Junping, deputy to the National People’s Congress and secretary of the Party Committee and chairman of Hainan Development Holdings Co., Ltd., believes that "improving consumption conditions from the supply side will have a positive and far-reaching impact on further stimulating consumption potential, promoting consumption backflow and expanding domestic demand." Taking duty-free consumption in Hainan’s outlying islands as an example, he pointed out that the market supply of high-end consumer products in Hainan Island is insufficient, and it is difficult to fully meet the high-end consumer demand of tourists, resulting in the low average customer unit price of duty-free consumption on the island.

　　Recently, some duty-free shops in Hainan have greatly increased the unit price of customers by introducing new brands and adjusting the structure of goods. Zhou Junping said that this shows that the optimization of the supply side is an important factor in promoting and expanding consumption, which will play a role in optimizing the structure, adding vitality and leading the creation of new consumer demand.

　　Zhang Shuibo, a deputy to the National People’s Congress and a professor at the Department of Management and Economics of Tianjin University, believes that some people have the ability to consume but are unwilling to consume, to some extent because the market fails to provide products and services that meet their needs, such as smart electronic products that young people love and various health care products related to old-age care.

　　Chu Jun, member of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and member of the Standing Committee of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, said that with the rapid development of China’s economy and the continuous expansion of total social consumption, consumer goods have changed from a shortage of quantity to an abundant supply, and residents’ consumption preference has gradually shifted from "whether there is" to "whether it is good". Therefore, it is necessary to create new supply in line with the trend of residents’ consumption, and strive to meet personalized, diversified and high-quality consumer demand.

　　Zhu Dingjian, member of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and chairman of Mission Hills Group, proposed to optimize not only the supply of goods, but also the supply of services. For example, in terms of cultural tourism, we should combine seasonal characteristics and local characteristics to develop tourist routes, tourist performances, immersive experience projects, etc. to stimulate the consumption demand of cultural tourism.

　　Make up the shortcomings and dig deep into the potential of the consumer market

　　While optimizing supply, filling the shortcomings of the consumption environment and innovating consumption scenarios are also regarded as important measures to activate consumption.

　　Taking rural consumption as an example, with the continuous growth of farmers’ income, the consumption demand is also escalating, and the rural consumption environment is still insufficient. In the "Proposal on Further Restoring and Expanding Consumption and Helping Economic Recovery", the Zhi Gong Dang Central Committee suggested to improve the rural circulation system, promote the construction of e-commerce public service system, support the digital transformation and upgrading of rural commercial circulation enterprises, and promote the development of rural offline industries and the integration of online e-commerce trading platforms.

　　Not only the rural market consumption environment needs to be improved, but also the urban consumption scene has room for further improvement and expansion. For example, in some cities, the problem of inconvenient community life is still outstanding, which affects residents’ consumption. Wang Wentao, Minister of Commerce, said at a series of news conferences on the theme of "Opening by authoritative departments" held by the State Council Office on March 2 that there is still great potential in the consumer market within one kilometer of the community. This is not only an important starting point to promote consumption, but also an important measure to benefit people’s livelihood and warm people’s hearts.

　　Yang Chengzhang, member of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and chief economist of Shenwan Hongyuan Securities Research Institute, suggested that we should continue to support large-scale consumption such as housing improvement, new energy vehicles, green household appliances and decoration, increase policy support from the purchase and use links, promote service standardization, and enhance residents’ willingness to consume.

　　Xiong Jianming, deputy to the National People’s Congress and vice chairman of Jiangxi Federation of Industry and Commerce, suggested speeding up the innovative application of new technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence in the field of consumption, developing new formats and modes of consumption, and increasing diversified consumption scenarios.

　　In fact, filling the shortcomings of supply, circulation and use and optimizing the consumption environment have become the starting point of the policy. The reporter learned from the series of news conferences on the theme of "Opening the Authority Department" held by the State Council recently that we should actively promote the construction of the county-level commercial system and focus on improving the rural consumption environment; Transform and upgrade a number of "large towns and villages" and new convenience stores in rural areas, and improve the county and rural logistics distribution system; A series of measures such as facilitating the circulation of used cars and optimizing the use environment such as charging have been put on the agenda.

　　Strong confidence stimulates social consumption potential

　　Deputies believe that to restore and expand consumption, efforts should be made to enhance consumer confidence and further form a virtuous circle among stabilizing employment, increasing income and promoting consumption.

　　The Central Economic Work Conference proposed "enhancing consumption capacity" and "increasing the income of urban and rural residents through multiple channels". Xu Hongcai, Vice Minister of Finance, recently said that the financial sector will further support measures to promote the recovery and upgrading of the consumer market, and increase residents’ income through multiple channels so that ordinary people can spend money. Do everything possible to expand employment and rely on labor to create income. Increase social security, transfer payments and other adjustments, improve the consumption power of low-and middle-income residents, and at the same time improve preferential tax and fee policies to stimulate social consumption potential.

　　Commissioner Yang Growth pointed out that the core of expanding consumption at present lies in increasing residents’ income through multiple channels, stabilizing employment expectations and restoring consumer confidence. On the one hand, a series of consumption policies should focus on low-and middle-income groups, increase the adjustment of taxation, social security and transfer payment, reduce the costs of basic living, housing and social security contributions, and raise the level of disposable income. On the other hand, it is necessary to comprehensively promote employment, strengthen the employment priority policy, encourage flexible and diverse forms of employment, strengthen employment services, strengthen human development and employment training, and effectively improve the level of employment.

　　Deputy Zhang Shuibo also said that in order to expand employment and increase residents’ income, we can consider giving play to the role of effective investment in promoting employment. For example, in the field of people’s livelihood, we should increase investment in infant rearing and old-age facilities, rural logistics system construction, etc., so as to achieve the "same-frequency resonance" of expanding investment, stabilizing employment and promoting consumption.

　　Committee member Chu Jun suggested vigorously developing characteristic industries, stabilizing the demand for local employment and employment, and comprehensively expanding employment channels; Steadily increase the wage income of workers, especially the income level of urban wage earners and migrant workers, optimize the wage structure, intensify the reform of the salary system, and protect the basic rights and interests of workers.

　　Talking about this year’s consumption situation, the deputies all expressed their belief that with the implementation of more policy measures, China’s consumer market will heat up steadily and inject more momentum into economic development.