The Chinese central government has announced the designation of five major cities as centres for efforts to drive “international consumption.”
The State Council has approved plans to develop Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin and Chongqing into “international consumption centre cities” (国际消费中心城市), according to an announcement made by the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on 19 July.
Wang Wentao (王文涛), MOFCOM chief, said that the focus would be on the term “international”, and “broadly gathering together the world’s high-quality market actors and high-quality products and services, accelerating the development of local brands, and striving to establish a cluster area for integrating global consumption resources.”
The next step will be for MOFCOM to work with related authorities to develop a general development plan, and establish inter-departmental coordination measures.
