Visitors tour a shopping fair at the Nanchang street of Wuxi on Oct 22. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
Wuxi in East China's Jiangsu province released a three-year (2021-23) action plan to build an international consumption center city on Oct 22.
The city will focus on four aspects - high-end consumption, characteristic culture, digital information, and quality environment - to build an international consumption center city that benefits the people.
According to the plan, consumption will contribute 60 percent to the economic growth of Wuxi by 2023. The total retail sales of consumer goods will also exceed 400 billion yuan ($62.05 billion) and register an annual growth rate of more than 9 percent. Meanwhile, online retail sales will grow by more than 10 percent by that year.
With the continuous upgrading of the consumption structure and the diversified development of consumption formats, consumption currently contributes to 59.5 percent of Wuxi's economic growth.
Wuxi is home to 24 commercial streets, 10 pedestrian streets, over 700 brand chain convenience stores, five tax refund shops, and nine Chinese time-honored brands. The city will work to promote unique characteristics of consumption, develop its nighttime economy and host more expositions and shopping festivals to drive consumption.
Online shopping will be another key means to promoting consumption in Wuxi. In 2020, Wuxi's online retail sales exceeded 85 billion yuan, of which online retail sales of physical goods increased by 16.1 percent year-on-year, accounting for 22.4 percent of the total retail sales.
Wuxi will also work to provide better services to consumers by optimizing delivery and the return and exchange system for goods.
