Promoting Consumption, Stabilizing Foreign Trade and Stabilizing Foreign Investment, Doing so in 2020

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, December 30-How effective will 2019 be in promoting consumption, stabilizing foreign trade and stabilizing foreign investment?  How to do it in 2020?  At the media briefing of the 2019 National Business Conference held on the 30th, the heads of relevant departments of the Ministry of Commerce responded to hot issues in the business field.

Promoting Consumption Expansion and Quality Improvement

The 2019 National Business Conference proposed to promote stable growth of consumption in 2020, to promote urban consumption, to promote the upgrading of pedestrian streets, and to improve automobile consumption policies.  Expand rural consumption, promote e-commerce to enter rural areas, and improve the urban and rural logistics distribution system;  To promote service consumption, promote domestic service quality and expansion, etc.

Wang Bin, deputy director of the marketing department of the Ministry of Commerce, said that it is expected that the total retail sales of social consumer goods in 2019 will exceed 40 trillion yuan for the first time, reaching 41.1 trillion yuan, an increase of 8% over the previous year. Consumption will contribute more than 60% to economic growth and will become the first driving force for economic growth for six consecutive years.

Cars are an important area to promote consumption.  Hu Jianping, deputy director of the market construction department of the Ministry of Commerce, said that the Ministry of Commerce will focus on the whole chain of automobile circulation to promote the optimization and upgrading of automobile consumption.  In terms of new cars, we will continue to improve the car consumption environment.  As for second-hand cars, we should pay close attention to revising the Measures for the Administration of Second-hand Car Circulation.  In the area of scrapped motor vehicles, the detailed rules for the implementation of the measures for the administration of the recycling of scrapped motor vehicles should be promptly promulgated.  In the automotive aftermarket, we will actively study policies and measures to promote the development of automobile refitting, competitions, culture, tourism, etc., and explore the potential of the automotive aftermarket.

In the field of service consumption, Xian Guoyi, Director of the Service and Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce, said that in 2020, catering consumption will be promoted and the scale and level of skilled personnel in the catering industry will be improved.  Promote the establishment of a credit system for domestic service industry and a classified physical examination system for domestic service personnel;  We will promote consumption of community life services and build a convenient service circle.

Promoting High Quality Development of Foreign Trade

Li xinggan, director of the foreign trade department of the Ministry of commerce, said that since the beginning of this year, China has timely introduced policies and measures to stabilize foreign trade, focusing on reducing the burden on enterprises, creating a good trade environment and stabilizing the overall situation of foreign trade development.

"It is expected that the foreign trade volume will stabilize at more than 30 trillion yuan in the whole year, which is likely to exceed last year's volume and reach a new high."  Li Xinggan said that from a horizontal comparison, China's export growth rate is higher than the overall level of major economies in the world.

Meanwhile, the quality of foreign trade continued to improve.  Li Xinggan introduced that the main force of private enterprises has played a prominent role, the contribution of general trade has increased, the layout of the international market has become more reasonable, and the export of high-tech, high-quality and high value-added products has increased rapidly.

Li Xinggan said that in 2020, the international market layout should be optimized in depth, traditional markets should be consolidated, emerging markets should be expanded, and enterprises should be supported to develop a number of key markets.  We will optimize the structure of commodities and the way of trade so as to enhance the independent development of trade.  At the same time, actively cultivate new formats and modes of foreign trade, and promote the construction and development of a comprehensive test area for cross-border e-commerce.  We will expand the market procurement trade pilot and promote the upgrading and gradient transfer of processing trade.  In addition, it is necessary to cultivate a number of import trade promotion innovation demonstration zones, promote balanced development of import and export, promote balanced development in the eastern, central and western regions, build a higher level of open economy, and strive to maintain and maintain a stable growth in foreign trade.

In the field of service trade, Xian Guoyi said that in 2020, it is necessary to actively expand service exports and deepen the pilot of innovative development of service trade.  Further promote the expansion and opening up of trade in services, and study and formulate a national version of the negative list of cross-border trade in services;  We will improve the statistical monitoring system for trade in services.

To stabilize and expand the use of foreign capital

Zong Changqing, director of the Foreign Investment Department of the Ministry of Commerce, said that from January to November, the actual foreign investment in the country was 845.94 billion yuan, up 6% year on year.  Discounted 124.39 billion US dollars, up 2.6% year on year.  It is estimated that the annual growth will be about 5% in RMB and 2% in USD.

Zong Changqing said that in 2019, China's independent opening-up measures are numerous, the opening-up intensity is large, and the level of opening-up is deep, forming a "combination fist" of expanding opening-up and absorbing foreign capital, stabilizing foreign investment confidence and expectations, and effectively ensuring the realization of the goal of stabilizing foreign investment throughout the year.

At present, China's situation of attracting foreign capital is complicated and grim.  Zong Changqing analyzed that the global total amount of transnational investment is still at a relatively low level, the competition for capital introduction is increasingly fierce, and the uncertainty of stabilizing foreign investment is increasing.  On the whole, however, the basic trend of China's stable economy toward good and long-term good has not changed. Attracting foreign capital has a comprehensive competitive advantage, and China is still an important investment destination for most multinational companies.

How to stabilize and expand the use of foreign capital in 2020?  Zong Changqing introduced that the existing policies should be implemented to further enhance the sense of acquisition of foreign-funded enterprises.  Continue to reduce the negative list, supplement the encouraging list, and further expand market access through "one reduction and one increase";  Do a good job in the implementation of the foreign investment law and its regulations, completely cancel the approval and filing of foreign investment in the commercial field, implement the information reporting system, and strive to create a market-oriented, rule-of-law and internationalized business environment;  We will establish and improve a service system for foreign investment and a complaint mechanism for foreign-funded enterprises to effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of foreign-funded enterprises.

"By adopting these measures, we will further enhance the confidence, expectation and sense of acquisition of foreign investment in China, so as to really make foreign investors willing to come, enter, stay and develop well."  Zong Changqing said.