Experts hail Shanghai action plan on services consumption

Shanghai's plan to lift consumption of services will further boost the city's overall consumption potential and help facilitate the nation's high-quality development, experts said.

Such a development achieved through the services industry will lay a solid foundation for the nation to fulfill its goal of forming a unified market, the experts said on Wednesday.

The municipal government of Shanghai on Friday published an all-around action plan to boost its services consumption in the coming years.

According to the plan, services consumption will take up more than 60 percent of the city's total retail sales by 2035, said Zhu Min, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, during a news conference on Tuesday.

With a focus on "promoting its services consumption expansion and high-quality development", the action plan aims to build Shanghai into a first-class international consumption hub, Zhu said.

To achieve this, the action plan details 37 measures covering 12 areas, including culture and tourism, sports, healthcare, elderly care, information, finance, education, catering, housekeeping, lifestyle, transportation, integrated service scenarios and more.

The measures have also set concrete targets to be achieved by 2027, Zhu added.

As Shanghai approaches the level of developed economies as per various economic indicators, it is necessary that the city shift toward a consumption-and-services-driven mode, said Sun Lijian, director of the Financial Research Center at Fudan University.

The experience of developed countries has shown that once per capita GDP exceeds $15,000, services consumption will play a dominant role in household consumption expenditures. Shanghai's per capita GDP has touched $27,000 at the moment, according to Zhu.

Given the large number of high net-worth individuals in Shanghai and higher local incomes, there is great potential for services consumption, Sun said.

"More importantly, the integrated development of services consumption in various areas will help Shanghai play a central role in the formation of a unified national market," said Sun.

Qi Xiaozhai, vice-chairman of the Commerce Economy Association, said it is only a matter of time before Shanghai's services consumption plays a bigger role in overall consumption, and the latest measures by the local government will accelerate the change.

Qi said the tourism sector will be among the first to benefit from the services consumption policy.

"Travel is the first thing that will pop up in the minds of people who have extra money to spend and want to enjoy their lives. Therefore, there is gigantic demand and potential to explore," Qi said.

According to the plan, Shanghai will further enhance its cultural creativity and influence, raise its competitiveness, and strive to generate 550 billion yuan ($76.5 billion) in tourism revenue by 2027.

A wide variety of cultural and tourism products will be presented covering performances, concerts, musical festivals, art shows and exhibitions, said Cheng Meihong, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism.

Major venues for large-scale performances across the city have received 176 scheduled bookings to date, approaching the 194 recorded last year. It is projected that this year's performances and box office revenue will both exceed those of last year, said Cheng.

With improved transportation services, Shanghai expects to become a cruise consumption destination with global influence, and the city looks to handle 3 million passenger trips by cruise travelers annually by 2027.

By 2027, services consumption in sports is expected to reach about 45 percent of total sports consumption, and major sports events will play a greater role in the city, the plan said.

"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," said Xu Qi, deputy head of the Shanghai Administration of Sports.

"We've made quite a few innovations and tried to coordinate the events with culture, entertainment and consumption to make them fun and enjoyable," Xu added.

Shanghai will actively expand its international student education and continuously improve vocational education and professional training to constantly meet people's varied requirements for lifelong learning and skill upgrading, according to the guideline.

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