Shanghai to initiate year-long consumption promotion and events

Shanghai has recently released a new set of 15 measures aimed at boosting consumption, with various campaigns and activities scheduled throughout the year.

Among the measures, a year-long consumption festival is set to be a highlight. The event will run throughout the entire year.

According to Liu Min, deputy director of the city's Commission of Commerce, Shanghai is set to hold consumer promotion campaigns starting from February and lasting until the end of the year.

The city will host the fourth session of the Double Five (May 5) Shopping Festival and six major themed consumption seasons, linked with key exhibitions, events and performances throughout the year.

These six consumption seasons will be themed on spring, summer, autumn, the China International Import Expo, online shopping and the New Year Festival.

The Summer Consumption Season to be held from July to August, as an example, will focus on leisure activities for families with children. Exhibitions such as the ChinaJoy Expo and the Pet Fair Asia are planned along with sporting events including the National Youth Darts Championship.

The Golden Autumn Shopping Tourism season from September to October aims to attract tourists through shopping experiences, hosting major exhibitions such as the China International Furniture Fair.

In October-November during the shopping season embracing the CIIE, there will be special activities promoting international brands while supporting local ones as well, with a series of products and services making their debut in Shanghai.

During the Online Shopping Carnival between November and December, there are also plans for livestreaming e-commerce promotions leading up to the Double Eleven (December 11) sales event in addition to other promotional campaigns.

The measures also showed that to foster new growth momentum in consumption, targeted policies are formulated around the four major consumption areas, which are new forms of consumption, service consumption, automobile consumption and green consumption.

For example, the new forms of consumption are characterized by digitization, networking and intelligence which play a crucial role in promoting consumption expansion and leading innovation.

In this regard, Shanghai will support commercial enterprises to accelerate product research and development through the integration of 5G, cloud computing, blockchain, artificial intelligence and other technologies.

Additionally, the Pudong New Area, Huangpu District and Jing'an District will receive support to build digital transformation demonstration zones.

On service consumption, which covers culture and tourism, sports, food and beverage, and health, the city will promote cultural tourism brands, hold international sports events, and build several famous food business circles and host its fourth Shanghai Global Gourmet Festival.

As for auto consumption, which is crucial for stabilizing growth and promoting consumption in Shanghai, new-energy vehicles are to be exempt from vehicle purchase tax, while subsidies are given for replacing old vehicles with NEVs.

To boost green consumption, Shanghai is to expand the effective supply of green low-carbon products, support large shopping malls to develop into national green shopping malls, and cultivate a batch of green business entities.

Green restaurants will be established, while the subsidy policy has been extended, which gives the consumers who buy green smart home appliances a one-time subsidy equaling 10 percent of their payment (up to 1,000 yuan) to further encourage eco-friendly choices.