Overall recovery trend in business operations (authoritative release) Quality | Related | Overall
On the 19th, the State Council Information Office held a press conference, and relevant officials from the Ministry of Commerce introduced the business work and operation situation in the first half of the year.
Steadily advancing high-quality business development
Guo Tingting, Deputy Minister of Commerce, introduced that in the first half of this year, the overall operation of commerce showed a recovery trend, and high-quality development of commerce was steadily advancing.
Domestic consumption is recovering rapidly. The total retail sales of consumer goods in the first half of the year reached 22.8 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.2%. Among them, contact consumption has significantly rebounded, and catering revenue has increased by 21.4%. Upgraded products have shown good growth momentum, with sales of new energy vehicles increasing by 44.1%; The retail sales of gold, silver, jewelry, and sports and entertainment products in units above the quota increased by 17.5% and 10.5% respectively. Online shopping has grown rapidly, with the online retail sales of physical goods increasing by 10.8%, accounting for 26.6% of the total social retail sales.
Foreign trade maintains growth. In the first half of the year, the import and export of goods reached 20.1 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.1%, while exports increased by 3.7%, with a surplus of 2.8 trillion yuan, an expansion of 17.4%. In the first quarter, China's exports accounted for 14% of the international market share, an increase of 0.3 percentage points year-on-year. Private enterprises have strong resilience in import and export, with a growth rate of 8.9% and a further increase of 3.3 percentage points, reaching 52.7%.
The absorption of foreign investment is basically stable. The number of newly established foreign-funded enterprises has grown rapidly, with 24000 new foreign-invested enterprises established in the first half of the year, an increase of 35.7%; The actual use of foreign investment was 703.65 billion yuan, a decrease of 2.7%. The quality of investment attraction continues to improve, with investment attraction in high-tech industries increasing by 7.9%, accounting for an increase of 3.9 percentage points to 39.4%. Among them, investment attraction in high-tech manufacturing industry increased by 28.8%. The open highland has a significant driving effect, with 21 pilot free trade zones absorbing foreign investment of 129.66 billion yuan, an increase of 8.2%, accounting for 18.4% of the national total.
Stable development of foreign investment and cooperation. Constantly improve the quality and level of foreign investment cooperation, and promote the high-quality development of the "the Belt and Road". In the first half of the year, foreign non-financial direct investment reached 431.61 billion yuan, an increase of 22.7%.
Optimize the consumption environment and implement detailed policies
Xu Xingfeng, Director of the Market Operation and Consumption Promotion Department of the Ministry of Commerce, introduced that in the first half of this year, the consumer market showed a steady recovery trend. Next, we will adhere to the organic combination of expanding domestic demand strategy with deepening supply side structural reform, strengthen policy coordination and work linkage, improve the penetration of implementation, and focus on several aspects of work.
One is to focus on optimizing the consumption environment and implementing detailed policies. The State Council and various departments have introduced a series of policies to promote consumption, and the next step is to make these policies effective. The Ministry of Commerce will also conduct in-depth investigation and research, strengthen policy reserves, enrich policy toolboxes, and timely promote the implementation based on the current changes in the consumer market situation.
The second is to focus on creating a consumption atmosphere and continuously organizing good consumption activities. At the national level, we will organize the "Home Renovation Consumption Season" well, mobilize enthusiasm from all aspects of the home industry, and form a joint force; We will plan to launch the "Golden Autumn Shopping Festival" in September.
The third is to focus on improving consumer conditions and perfecting the commercial system. In the city, cultivate and build an international consumption center city, transform and improve pedestrian streets, build smart stores and smart commercial districts, expand the coverage of the "15 minute convenient living circle", and develop characteristic streets. In rural areas, implement a three-year action plan for county-level commerce, cultivate a number of leading county-level commercial counties nationwide, upgrade and transform a number of township commercial centers and new convenient rural shops.
The fourth is to focus on innovative consumption scenarios and create consumption hotspots. In terms of cross-border integration, we will focus on empowering each other with business, tourism, culture, and health, and create more immersive, experiential, and interactive consumption scenes. In terms of online and offline integration, on the one hand, it supports the healthy development of instant retail and live streaming e-commerce; On the other hand, in response to the new situation, we encourage e-commerce platforms to extend and expand offline, and improve the level of digitalization and intelligence in physical commerce.
The overall scale of actual use of foreign investment remains stable
Zhu Bing, Director of the Foreign Investment Management Department of the Ministry of Commerce, said that since the beginning of this year, the world economy has slowed down, and global cross-border investment has been sluggish. Coupled with factors such as a high base in the same period last year, China's actual use of foreign investment in the first half of the year has slightly decreased year-on-year, but the overall scale has remained stable.
The external environment for attracting investment in our country is more severe and complex, but at the same time, it should also be noted that the strong resilience, abundant potential, and long-term positive fundamentals of the Chinese economy have not changed. The open market provides more opportunities for the development of enterprises in various countries. The comprehensive advantages of attracting investment in China, consisting of a complete industrial system, complete infrastructure, abundant talent resources, and continuously optimized business environment, are also constantly strengthening. Zhu Bing said that the next step will be to focus on four areas of work.
One is to promote a higher level of opening up to the outside world. We will promote the rational reduction of the negative list of foreign investment access and further cancel or relax restrictions on foreign investment access. Deepen the construction of comprehensive demonstration zones for expanding the opening up of the national service industry, actively compare the rules, regulations, management, and standards related to high standard economic and trade agreements, launch a new batch of innovative pilot measures, and steadily expand institutional opening up in the service industry. Revise the Measures for the Administration of Strategic Investment by Foreign Investors in Listed Companies to further relax restrictions on foreign investors' strategic investment in listed companies.
The second is to strengthen foreign investment policy support. On the basis of continuing to implement existing policies, the Ministry of Commerce will focus on the common demands reflected by foreign-funded enterprises, such as fair competition, investment facilitation, and factor protection. It will promote the introduction of a new batch of policy measures to optimize the foreign investment environment and vigorously attract foreign investment. In conjunction with various regions and departments, it will strengthen publicity and implementation to ensure that the policies are effective and enhance the sense of gain of foreign-funded enterprises.
Thirdly, we will continue to organize the "Investment in China Year" series of activities well. In the second half of the year, we will continue to organize a series of key activities in conjunction with major economic and trade exhibitions, including holding a forum on the theme of "Investment in China Year" during the China International Fair for Trade in Services, and holding a special promotion session on the service industry during the China International Fair for Trade in Services. We will support various regions in strengthening the docking and project matching of investment attraction, and strive to attract more new foreign investment projects.
The fourth is to improve the level of foreign investment service guarantee. Since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Commerce has fully utilized the role of the Special Task Force for Key Foreign Investment Projects under the Coordination Service Mechanism for Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, strengthened regular exchanges with foreign-funded enterprises and foreign business associations, and upgraded the establishment of a roundtable meeting system for foreign-funded enterprises, conducting exchange activities in multiple ways and levels. Next, we will continue to play a good role in the roundtable conference system and build it into an important platform for the Chinese government to connect with foreign-funded enterprises, serve foreign-funded enterprises, and help enterprises solve problems.
