Guiyang revitalizes commerce with consumption

The information office of Guiyang's government in Southwest China's Guizhou province held a news conference on Dec 3 to highlight Guiyang's achievements in commerce revitalization and promoting middle and high-end consumption during the past five years.

Focusing on constructing a city featuring middle and high-end consumption and furthering supply-side reform, Guiyang launched an action plan to build more shops.

By November this year, Guiyang had built 37 large shopping centers and pedestrian streets, providing a business area of 3.5 million square meters. There are also 15 commercial projects such as shopping malls under construction, with a floorage of 2.55 million sq m.

With the integration of big data and online business, Guiyang's commerce level has maintained rapid development. Since 2016, the average growth rate of Guiyang's total retail sales of consumer goods is about 8.2 percent annually.

Amid the novel coronavirus this year, Guiyang's total retail sales of consumer goods saw its growth rate turn from negative to positive in April, totaling 150.76 billion yuan ($23.04 billion) during the first three quarters with a year-on-year growth rate of 5 percent.

Both the growth rate and total amount of Guiyang's retail sales of consumer goods ranked first in Guizhou, and the growth rate was higher than the national and provincial averages.

Guiyang has learned from the experience of China's major metropolises – such as Beijing and Shanghai – to promote the development of domestic and international commerce. It proposed commerce development planning in the city, launched supporting measures to stimulate consumption, and encouraged the consumption of imported products.

Last year, Guiyang's cross-border commerce had a total transaction amount of $200 million. During the first 10 months of this year, that number reached $372 million.

In the future, Guiyang will accelerate the construction of business areas, introduce more brands, develop the nighttime economy and innovate to increase consumption.