Nine government departments have unveiled 18 game-changing new policies to give a strong boost to county-level commerce!
Recently, 9 departments including the Ministry of Commerce jointly issued the Opinions on Further Stimulating the Vitality of the Sinking Market and Invigorating County-level Consumption (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), putting forward key supporting measures to invigorate county-level consumption. This is another policy boost to the sinking market following the construction of the county-level commercial system.
Screenshot from the official website of the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China
The Opinions accurately targets long-standing core pain points in the county-level market, such as aging commercial facilities, low circulation efficiency, and insufficient supply adaptability, and further taps the consumption potential of the county-level market through 18 measures in 6 major aspects:
■ Support the upgrading of county-level consumption channels, accelerate the renewal of stock commercial facilities, optimize the layout of commercial outlets, improve supporting commercial services, and revitalize idle resources and assets.
■ Promote the innovation of county-level commercial formats and brand building, guide chain enterprises to accelerate their expansion into lower-tier markets, promote the inheritance and innovation of local brands, and develop emerging business formats in light of local conditions.
■ Optimize the supply of county-level goods and services, expand the supply of high-quality goods at reasonable prices, accelerate the improvement of service formats for the elderly and children, and promote the integrated development of commerce, agriculture, culture, tourism and sports.
■ Further enhance the modernization level of county-level circulation, improve the efficiency of urban-rural circulation networks, and guide the coordinated development of online and offline operations.
■ Strengthen consumption security capabilities, promote stable employment to expand income-increasing channels, and boost entrepreneurship and stable residence to unlock consumption potential.
In addition, the Opinions also deliver tangible support to the retail commercial industry in terms of fiscal funds, financial services, land use support and other aspects, for example:
Support the upgrading and renovation of traditional department stores, old shopping malls and other facilities, promote the optimized layout of brand chain stores, discount retail stores, fresh e-commerce stores, etc. Promote the construction of a number of high-level consumption carriers such as core business districts and characteristic commercial blocks, rationally layout a number of large commercial complexes, and introduce domestic and foreign brands to open regional first stores.
Develop small stores, time-honored brands and workshop-style brands that carry local culture, support trendy domestic products to enter county-level markets. Build a phased array of famous Chinese consumer brands. Support cross-border co-branding between local county-level brands and chain brands.
At the same time, streamline store opening procedures, simplify the approval process for opening supermarkets, convenience stores and other businesses, and promote "efficient completion of one single matter"; implement the "one license for multiple addresses" policy for chain enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households in the commercial and trade sector in qualified same county areas.
The full text of the Opinions on Further Stimulating the Vitality of the Sinking Market and Invigorating County-level Consumption is as follows:
Opinions on Further Stimulating the Vitality of the Sinking Market and Invigorating County-level Consumption
To further stimulate the vitality of the sinking market, promote the expansion and quality improvement of the service industry, and invigorate county-level consumption, the following opinions are hereby put forward.
01. General Guidelines
Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we will thoroughly implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and all plenary sessions of the 20th Central Committee, give full play to the strategic supporting role of the sinking market in expanding the incremental space of domestic demand and building a strong domestic market, learn and apply the experience of the "Ten-Thousand-Village Project", adopt targeted policies to optimize consumption channels, enrich brand supply and improve service capabilities, create distinctive consumption scenarios in light of local conditions, continuously prosper county-level consumer markets, and better meet the diverse and high-quality needs of the people.
02. Support the Upgrading of County-level Consumption Channels
(1) Accelerate the renewal of stock commercial facilities. Support the upgrading and transformation of traditional department stores, old shopping malls and other facilities, and promote the optimized layout of brand chain stores, discount retail stores, fresh e-commerce stores, etc. Deepen the transformation and upgrading of the "Thousand Markets and Ten Thousand Stores" initiative, support the construction and upgrading of township commercial centers, agricultural trade markets, large township characteristic fairs, etc., and construct and transform new convenience stores and comprehensive village-level delivery and logistics service stations in a standardized and standardized manner.
(2) Optimize the layout of commercial outlets. Promote the effective connection between the layout of county-level commercial outlets and the territorial spatial planning. Dynamically adjust the commercial layout guidelines by comprehensively considering factors such as the status of existing stock and population trends, combined with the evaluation and analysis of commercial vacancy rates. Promote the construction of a number of high-level consumption carriers such as core business districts and characteristic commercial blocks, rationally layout a number of large commercial complexes, and introduce domestic and foreign brands to open regional first stores.
(3) Improve supporting commercial services. Coordinate the promotion of commercial space renovation, traffic organization optimization and supporting facility renewal to enhance the radiation capacity of county-level commerce. Promote large circulation enterprises such as postal services and supply and marketing cooperatives to extend services to remote areas, and carry out "Supply and Marketing Fair" activities. Summarize and apply the "Yiwu Development Experience", focus on the main functions of various regions, build and transform professional markets and distribution centers integrated with local characteristic industries, and enhance the capacity of commercial circulation to serve industrial development.
(4) Revitalize idle resources and assets. For projects that use existing real estate or land to develop county-level people's livelihood industries such as elderly care and childcare, they can enjoy transitional support policies that do not change the land use subject and planning conditions within 5 years. On the premise of conforming to the territorial spatial planning, various methods such as independent operation, joint operation, and transfer are encouraged to promote the transformation and development of existing land, so as to improve the level of local commercial services. Support county-level governments to use idle state-owned assets such as vacated office buildings to rebuild convenient commercial outlets. Support the market entry of rural collective operational construction land in accordance with the law to develop county-level commerce, and encourage the use of idle rural houses to develop new industries and business formats that are in line with rural characteristics.
03. Promote the Innovation of County-level Commercial Formats and Brand Building
(5) Guide chain enterprises to accelerate expansion into lower-tier markets. Simplify the approval process for opening supermarkets, convenience stores and other businesses, and promote "efficient completion of one single matter". Implement the "one license for multiple addresses" policy for chain enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households in the commercial and trade sector in qualified same county areas. Standardize and optimize the approval processes in the fields of fire protection, market regulation and other fields. Encourage state-owned properties to appropriately extend the lease term of commercial projects. No obvious or hidden obstacles shall be set for the cross-regional operation of chain enterprises.
(6) Promote the inheritance and innovation of local brands. Develop small stores, time-honored brands and workshop-style brands that carry local culture, and support trendy domestic products to enter county-level markets. Build a phased array of famous Chinese consumer brands. Support cross-border co-branding between local county-level brands and chain brands. Thoroughly implement the high-quality agricultural brand cultivation plan, and optimize the agricultural brand catalog system. Deepen the action of helping agriculture through advertising, and support high-quality advertising resources to sink to lower-tier areas. Further optimize the joint approval process for "converting individual businesses into enterprises" in county-level areas.
(7) Develop emerging business formats in light of local conditions. Encourage qualified regions to develop virtual reality, immersive experience, "artificial intelligence + consumption" and other formats, and promote green consumption modes such as second-hand trading and commodity leasing. Deepen the implementation of the special action to promote healthy consumption. Innovate the consumption chain integrating primary, secondary and tertiary industries.
04. Optimize the Supply of County-level Goods and Services
(8) Expand the supply of high-quality goods at reasonable prices. Encourage enterprises to actively introduce high-quality goods into county-level markets, launch new products simultaneously in qualified counties, and promote "equal access to the same quality" of the same products in urban and rural areas. Guide enterprises to develop high-quality products that meet the characteristics of county-level consumption, and support commercial circulation enterprises to build a flexible supply chain based on "private brand + production based on demand". Vigorously support new energy vehicles, green smart products, green building materials and other products to go to the countryside, and expand the coverage of rural charging facilities.
(9) Accelerate the improvement of service formats for the elderly and children. Encourage qualified regions to drive brand catering, accommodation and other life service enterprises to expand the market through renovation rent support, entrepreneurial financing guarantee and other methods. Implement the county-level elderly care service improvement plan. Coordinate existing resources to support the construction of regional rural elderly care service centers and county-level childcare service facilities. Promote the extension of the "15-minute convenient living circle" to county-level areas.
(10) Promote the integrated development of commerce, agriculture, culture, tourism and sports. Support the extension of consumption chains through performance and event tickets. Promote the quality upgrading of nighttime cultural and tourism consumption, and build a number of rural tourism destinations with distinct cultural characteristics. Foster characteristic consumption scenarios such as "health care +, cultural tourism +, agriculture +, folk custom +, historical classics +", support adjacent counties to jointly build cross-regional classic consumption routes, and attract more urban residents to consume in rural areas.
05. Further Enhance the Modernization Level of County-level Circulation
(11) Improve the efficiency of urban-rural circulation networks. Optimize the planning and layout of commercial circulation infrastructure, and unify construction and operation standards and management specifications. Thoroughly promote the cooperation between postal and express delivery services, the integrated development of rural passenger, cargo and postal services, and accelerate the connection of county-level commercial logistics and express logistics. Improve the agricultural product logistics service system, support the construction of origin warehouses, centralized collection and distribution centers, cold chain storage and preservation facilities, and rural roadside markets, promote standardized pallets and fruit and vegetable turnover boxes (baskets), and strengthen the connection of cold chain services. Deepen the supply and marketing "green agricultural materials" upgrading action.
(12) Guide the coordinated development of online and offline operations. Deepen the high-quality development project of rural e-commerce, and thoroughly implement the "Digital Merchants Empowering Agriculture" initiative. Strengthen the construction of e-commerce supply chains, and expand rural e-commerce application scenarios such as local customs and folklore, intangible cultural heritage skills, and rural delicacies. Encourage supply chain enterprises to provide county-level retail entities with services such as demand forecasting, logistics optimization, and inventory management, and carry out bulk collection, procurement and customization. Guide platform enterprises to consciously standardize their pricing and platform subsidy behaviors, and reasonably reduce commissions, technical service fees and other expenses for newly settled merchants and small and micro merchants in county-level areas. Coordinate county-level e-commerce public service resources, build a number of "Village Live Streaming Colleges", and increase the intensity of public welfare training.
06. Enhance Consumption Security Capabilities
(13) Promote stable employment to expand income-increasing channels. Support enterprise headquarters or platform enterprises to layout business outlets and business units in qualified counties to expand employment capacity. Intensify the implementation of work-relief programs. Coordinate the service guarantee for migrant workers going out to work and the support for returning home to start businesses. Encourage the integration of public employment recruitment and special county-level consumption activities, and add employment services in qualified county-level consumption places and convenient service outlets. Encourage all regions to include relevant service industry occupations in the county-level catalog of urgently needed talents according to local conditions.
(14) Boost entrepreneurship and stable residence to unlock consumption potential. Increase support for "efficient completion of one single matter" for individual entrepreneurship at the county level. Encourage county-level governments to build rural entrepreneurship parks and other incubation carriers for returning entrepreneurs in light of local conditions. Promote typical experiences such as "Common Wealth Workshop", carry out the "Business Operator" capacity improvement action, support the "new craftsman" groups in cultural and creative handicrafts, home life, food and tea and other fields, and cultivate more county-level labor service brands. Support home decoration and home appliance enterprises to carry out joint marketing with real estate enterprises, and support the housing demand of families with multiple children in accordance with local policies.
07. Strengthen Factor Integration and Business Environment Construction
(15) Strengthen the guarantee of fiscal funds. Implement the action to stimulate consumption in the sinking market, focus on supporting the upgrading of consumption channels, scenario innovation and efficiency improvement in county-level areas, and make up for the shortcomings of life services. Optimize resource layout, coordinate relevant funding channels from the central and local governments, integrate and utilize existing resources, and build service facilities in fields such as county-level elderly care, childcare, education, medical care and sports in light of local conditions. Support eligible personal consumption loans and service industry business entity loans to enjoy fiscal discount support.
(16) Improve the quality and efficiency of financial services. Guide financial institutions to optimize financial services in the consumption sector of the sinking market, and strengthen financial support for eligible consumption and commercial facility projects. Support eligible wholesale, retail and service consumption enterprises to issue bonds and go public for financing. Eligible commercial circulation enterprises that have newly opened chain stores in county-level areas can apply for entrepreneurial guarantee loan policies and enjoy discount interest support.
(17) Strengthen the guarantee of county-level commercial land use. For circulation enterprises that layout logistics, warehousing, cold chain and other facilities in county-level areas, mixed-use land supply can be implemented according to planning, and flexible-term transfer can be implemented according to the wishes of enterprises. The transfer reserve price of county-level logistics, warehousing and cold chain land can be determined with reference to the market land price level and benchmark land price of industrial land in the region. County-level industrial land can accommodate no more than 15% of the total calculated floor area for supporting administrative office and life service facilities to provide convenient commercial services, which shall not be separately divided and transferred. Encourage qualified regions to explore short-term land development and utilization, allow temporary change of house use to provide commercial services, and pay land transfer revenue in accordance with the law.
(18) Create a favorable consumption environment. Promote all regions to strengthen the statistical monitoring of county-level economic and social development to facilitate enterprise investment decisions. Encourage the construction of a number of consumer rights protection service stations, and cultivate a number of trustworthy business districts, markets, blocks and other gathering areas. Urge platform enterprises to strengthen the qualification review of operators, strengthen the verification of commodity information, and improve the rapid handling mechanism for consumption disputes. Continuously crack down on vulgar live-streaming marketing, illegal advertisements and other behaviors, and do a good job in the supervision of the recall of consumer goods sold online.
The Ministry of Commerce will break down and refine the task arrangements on an annual basis, and strengthen departmental coordination, supervision and guidance. All localities should actively explore county-level consumption development models that suit local characteristics.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Winshang", author: Winshang, published with authorization from 36Kr.