Five major Chinese cities - Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin and Chongqing - have been selected to develop international consumption centers, a senior trade official announced on Monday, in the country's latest step to bolster the domestic market.
The move mainly aims to shore up domestic consumption under the country's wider push for the dual-circulation strategy, as well as to construct global shopping centers that could rival cities such as Tokyo, Dubai, London or New York, observers noted.
Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said that the State Council, China's cabinet, has approved plans for the five cities to build international consumption centers. But he did not reveal any further details.
Given the uncertainty in the external environment, China needs to emphasize the role of internal circulation to drive economic development, Bai Ming, deputy director of the international market research institute at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation said.
"As a country with per capita GDP exceeding $10,000, we need to increase the proportion of consumption in GDP, which is more sustainable than investment," Bai said.
Nationally, retail sales rose 23% year-on-year in the first half of 2021 to 21.2 trillion yuan ($3.28 trillion). The contribution of consumption to economic growth reached 61.7%, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Thursday.
Retail sales grew by an average of 4.4% in the past two years, and they surpassed the level recorded in 2019, said the NBS.
