A shopping mall in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/Ningbo Daily]

Ningbo in East China's Zhejiang province recently released an action plan to accelerate the development of new types of consumption, with the ultimate goal of becoming a national model city in that regard. 

According to the plan, the city aims to cultivate 100 leading enterprises in new types of consumption and develop 10 consumption scenarios with new technology applications by 2025.

It also aims for the proportion of online retail sales of physical goods in the total retail sales of consumer goods in the city increase by 5 percent over the five-year period.

The consumption models, such as e-commerce, should also be mature in the area.

Efforts will be made to encourage the digital transformation of the services sector, including education, telemedicine, housekeeping, culture, and tourism.

In addition, the city will promote the smart transformation of residential communities in both urban and rural areas while speeding up the construction of new types of consumption infrastructure in fields including information networks and commerce circulation.

The total retail sales of consumer goods in Ningbo reached 423.83 billion yuan ($65.2 billion) in 2020, representing an annual growth rate of 7.1 percent during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) period, official data shows.