BEIJING, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- China's newly released measures to increase service consumption have drawn significant attention, with officials and experts saying the package will optimize service supply, stimulate new demand, promote high-quality development and improve people's well-being.
These measures, rolled out by nine government organs, outline 19 tasks in five areas. At a press conference on Wednesday, Vice Minister of Commerce Sheng Qiuping highlighted the focus of the measures -- namely, cultivating service consumption platforms, enriching high-quality supply, stimulating new demand, and strengthening fiscal and financial support.
Sheng said the measures link livelihood improvement with consumption promotion, aiming to raise living standards while unleashing new demand. Examples include developing well-known sports events and leagues, expanding long-term care insurance coverage, and supporting community-based childcare services to better meet people's everyday needs.
To coordinate supply and demand -- these measures include expanding quality supply through pilot cities for new business models and scenarios, enriching cultural, tourism and sports offerings, and improving services in sectors such as entertainment, sports, elderly care and childcare, Sheng said.
He added that on the demand side, measures include stronger credit support, consumption campaigns, and extended service hours to stimulate the willingness and capacity to spend.
Measures will also be rolled out to widen market access in areas such as telecommunications, healthcare and education, while steps will be taken to improve visa and payment facilitation for foreigners in China, and foster international markets for medical and exhibition services, Sheng revealed.
At the same time, restrictions on sectors such as mid-to-high-end healthcare and leisure will be eased to attract more private and foreign investment -- thereby bringing in quality resources to boost supply, stimulate market vitality and improve efficiency.
Experts said measures such as allowing museums and cultural venues to innovate in terms of exhibition formats and retain related revenue for staff incentives, mark a step toward impactful reform.
Zou Yunhan, a researcher with the State Information Center, said this move could help transform museums from traditional institutions focused on collection and research, into comprehensive cultural and leisure venues, encouraging efforts in resource integration, product innovation and improved visitor experience -- and further unleashing their potential to provide the public with more high-quality cultural offerings.
The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, has also stepped up support for service consumption. In May, it launched a 500-billion-yuan (about 70 billion U.S. dollars) relending facility for service consumption and elderly care, guiding financial institutions to increase lending to sectors such as catering, culture, education and tourism.
Together with an expanded relending program for technological innovation and equipment upgrading -- these tools are helping channel more credit to service-related projects, Yang Hong, an official with the central bank, said at Wednesday's press conference.
Beyond monetary tools, the central bank has also urged financial institutions to innovate products and expand credit supply for key consumption areas, covering food, housing, travel and entertainment, Yang added.
By the end of July 2025, outstanding loans in major service consumption sectors nationwide had reached 2.79 trillion yuan -- up 5.3 percent year on year.
The new measures targeting expanded service consumption also include mobilizing the central budget and local government special-purpose bonds in supporting the construction of cultural, tourism, elderly care, childcare and sports facilities -- as well as providing interest subsidies for service providers in sectors closely linked to people's daily lives.
Various funding support options, including interest subsidies and local government special-purpose bonds, will help reduce financing costs for businesses and lower costs of consumer spending, said Fu Yifu, a researcher at Jiangsu Su Merchants Bank.
Observers have said that as these measures take effect, service consumption is expected to gradually become a leading driver of domestic demand -- thus playing a larger role in improving people's well-being and supporting China's high-quality development.
