Changsha Issues 10 Measures to Tap Consumption Potential

The Changsha Municipal Development and Reform Commission and the Changsha Municipal Bureau of Commerce jointly issued 10 policies and measures to promote the continuous recovery of consumption, involving food, housing, transportation, tourism, shopping, entertainment, and other aspects. This aimed to implement the spirit of relevant documents of the State Council, further stimulate consumption potential, unleash domestic demand, and boost consumption confidence.

The ten policies and measures include building consumption brands, encouraging automobile consumption, promoting home appliance consumption, expanding housing consumption, advancing cultural tourism consumption, expanding sports consumption, activating nighttime consumption, cultivating digital consumption, boosting exhibition consumption, and improving the quality of consumption by the elderly and the youth.

In order to encourage automobile consumption, it is proposed to fully implement the national policy of exempting new energy vehicles from vehicle purchase tax; completely rescind all local policies that restrict sales of non-local second-hand vehicles; expand the ratio of new energy vehicles of the public vehicle leasing units; and, encourage all kinds of parking lots to give preferential treatment to new energy vehicles.

In terms of promoting cultural and tourism consumption, it is suggested to issue cultural and tourism consumption coupons. Each urban district, county, and county-level city will create more than 5 internet-famous sites and 12 recommended rural tourism routes. Trade unions at all levels are encouraged to guide and organize employers to visit parks and scenic spots, red or revolutionary education bases, and rural homestays to carry out various activities.

As for activating nighttime consumption, it is said to build more than 100 demonstration business districts, blocks, brands, and stores for nighttime consumption, and select top ten night economic clusters (tourism and leisure districts). Supermarkets, blocks, and restaurants are supported to effectively extend business hours, Temporary parking spaces will be reasonably set up during off-peak hours at night.

Regarding the assistance to exhibition consumption, it puts forward the idea of establishing a "white list" system to support the hosting of industrial exhibitions under the premise of doing well in normalized epidemic prevention work. For those holding professional, high-end, branded, and international conventions and exhibitions, appropriate subsidies will be provided.

In terms of cultivating digital consumption, it encourages all urban districts, counties, and county-level cities to provide rent subsidies and financial incentives to qualified high-quality livestreaming e-commerce service agencies. It also asks to accelerate the speed-up and upgrading of broadband for residential users, and encourage operators to upgrade broadband for home users to more than 500 M (including 500 M) for free.