Shanghai plans huge boost for its service sector

Shanghai has unveiled a comprehensive action plan to boost its service sector in the coming year, with a strategic goal of it comprising more than 60 percent of the city's total retail sales by 2035.

During a news conference on Tuesday, Zhu Min, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, stated that the action plan released last Friday focuses on promoting the expansion and high-quality development of service consumption, with an objective to establish Shanghai as an international consumption hub adhering to world-class standards.

In order to achieve this goal, the action plan includes 37 measures spanning 12 areas such as culture and tourism, sports, health, elderly care, information, finance, education, catering, housekeeping, living standards, transportation, integrated service scenarios, and more. Zhu noted that certain targets must be achieved by 2027.

As outlined in the plan, Shanghai aims to bolster its cultural creativity and influence, increase competitiveness, and target a tourism revenue of 550 billion yuan by 2027.

Cheng Meihong, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism, said a diverse range of cultural and tourism offerings, including performances, concerts, music festivals, shows, and exhibitions, will be featured in the plan.

Major venues throughout the city have already secured 176 scheduled bookings, nearing last year's total of 194. Cheng anticipates that the number of performances and box office revenue will surpass that of the previous year.

According to the plan, Shanghai is actively accelerating the development of an international sports consumption hub as it aspires to become a world-class sports event capital. The plan sets a target of achieving approximately 45 percent of total sports consumption from service consumption by 2027, while emphasizing the increasing significance of hosting major sports events in the city.

“Along with the Paris Olympic Games taking place this year, Shanghai has also formed a compact schedule for as many as 175 major sports events at or above national level,” said Xu Qi, deputy head of the Shanghai Administration of Sports.

“We‘ve made quite a few innovations and tried to collaborate the events with culture, entertainment, consumption to make them fun and enjoyable,” Xu added.

As part of its efforts to establish a health service consumption city of global influence and a hub for elderly service consumption, Shanghai will provide high-quality, diversified, and innovative healthcare services. Additionally, the city aims to cultivate and introduce tailor-made and differentiated elderly care service models.

With the goal of becoming a world-class benchmark city for information service consumption, Shanghai will focus on developing over 100 digital application scenarios, nurturing more than 1,000 information consumption products, and fostering a group of industry leaders with global competitiveness, the plan states.

According to Ge Dongbo, chief engineer with the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Informatization, the rapid advancement of new-generation information infrastructures such as AI, 5G, and blockchain will result in faster and more reliable internet surfing speeds. This development will enable various sectors, including industrial manufacturing, cultural and tourism consumption, occupational education, and healthcare to bring a more diverse range of offerings.

As part of its efforts to establish itself as a premier destination for education service consumption with international recognition, Shanghai will proactively expand its education offerings for international students. The city will strive to enhance vocational education and professional training to cater to the diverse needs of lifelong learning and skill development, according to the guidelines.

“Taking the catering sector as an example, a complete talent cultivating system ranging from vocational education, specialized training, to qualification and certification will be formed, so as to cultivate skilled talents and promote the catering industry’s development,” said Zhang Guohua, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce.

In order to build the city into a culinary capital known for its international characteristics, the plan aims to introduce up to 1,000 stores of renowned catering brands and will certify 4,000 eco-friendly restaurants as “green”.

Complementing enhanced transportation services, Shanghai envisions itself as a global cruise consumption destination, aiming to accommodate 3 million cruise travelers annually by 2027.