State Council meeting calls for enhanced efforts to unleash domestic demand potential

BEIJING -- A State Council executive meeting on Friday urged efforts to strengthen overall coordination and refine implementation mechanisms of large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-in programs to better leverage their role in boosting domestic demand.

The executive meeting, chaired by Chinese Premier Li Qiang, briefed the attendees on the progress of the programs and stressed the need to further strengthen fiscal, taxation and financial policy support, create innovative consumption and investment scenarios, improve the environment for both, and adopt a comprehensive set of measures to unlock the potential of domestic demand.

Highlighting the role of the sports industry and sports consumption in boosting domestic demand, the meeting called for efforts to expand the supply of sports products, enrich sporting events and activities, foster new growth drivers in the sports industry, broaden sports-consumption scenarios, and encourage localities to host sports-oriented consumer events.

Meanwhile, the meeting reviewed and approved the master plan for the Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program. It stressed the need to solidify the ecological security barrier in northern China, guide localities to develop specialty industries suited to their conditions, and achieve a win-win outcome for ecological, economic, and social benefits.

The meeting also arranged for a special campaign to ensure safe operations of marine fishing vessels, calling for strengthened oversight across the entire safety supervision chain.