Focus on time-honored brands to boost spending

China will further unleash the vitality of its time-honored brands amid efforts to boost consumption and advance the formation of a more vibrant domestic market, officials said on Wednesday.

Sheng Qiuping, vice-minister of commerce, said more policy measures will be taken to promote time-honored brands' exemplary and leading roles in trade circulation, consumption promotion, technological innovation, brand building and cultural inheritance.

Speaking at a news conference in Beijing, Shen said these moves will greatly contribute to the growth of China's dual-circulation development paradigm, which takes the domestic market as the mainstay while letting domestic and foreign markets reinforce each other.

Eager to inject more impetus into the country's economic rebound, the government released management measures for time-honored brands in January.

The policy document, jointly issued by the Ministry of Commerce and four other government departments — including the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the State Administration for Market Regulation — detailed actions to protect the legal rights of time-honored brands, establish a national list for their promotion, and highlight their economic and cultural value.

China currently has 1,128 national-level and 3,277 local-level time-honored brands. About 701 national-level brands have been in existence for over a century, according to information released by the Ministry of Commerce.

With combined annual revenue exceeding 2 trillion yuan ($296.6 billion), they generally operate in more than 20 sectors, including food processing, catering, accommodation and residential services, said the ministry.

Measures will also be introduced to establish commercial streets and scenic spots featuring characteristics of time-honored brands to better showcase their charm, said Li Xiaosong, deputy director-general of the department of intangible cultural heritage at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Li Gang, deputy director-general of the department of circulation industry development at the Ministry of Commerce, said the government will encourage businesses of this kind to develop creative cultural products together with relevant institutions, as well as hold cultural experience activities and provide customized services.

The government will give priority to the recovery and expansion of consumption in 2023 while stabilizing the scale and optimizing the structure of foreign trade, the Ministry of Commerce said in an online statement on Tuesday.

In addition to attracting and utilizing foreign investment this year, the government will cultivate new growth points for international economic and trade cooperation around the world.

China will also enhance its strength to maintain economic security in 2023, said the statement.

After decades of growth, consumption has been the biggest driving force of economic growth in China for many years. The country's position as the world's largest economy in goods trade has been consolidated, and the utilization of foreign investment has steadily ranked second in the world for five consecutive years, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Frank Heinricht, CEO of Schott AG, a German producer of specialty glass and a supplier to the pharmaceutical and medical industries, said that China has become the fastest-growing market for Schott and the group will invest 55 million euros ($59.86 million) in China to boost innovation activities and expand its production efficiency in 2023.

Heinricht said Schott plans to attend many events in the country this year, such as the Appliance &Electronics World Expo in April and the China International Import Expo in November, both of which will take place in Shanghai.

With China entering a new era of green and innovation-led growth, France's Schneider Electric SE put a power supply and energy storage-themed innovation facility into operation in Shanghai last month.

It will provide solutions to meet local customers' needs through strategic positioning and foresight around the mega-trends of high-power platforms, standardization, digitization, automation and green development, said Lu Bin, senior vice-president of Schneider Electric.