Economic Daily:

The report to the 20th CPC National Congress stated that China would resolve the most pressing difficulties and problems that are of great concern to the people. At present, residents in some urban communities are still facing serious living inconveniences. In recent years, the Ministry of Commerce has started the development of 15-minute community life circles to solve the problem. What progress has been made in this regard? And what will you do next to promote the work?

Wang Wentao:

Your questions are related to the development of community businesses. Studies have shown that more than half of urban residents' daily consumption and expenditure is concentrated within one-kilometer reach of their community, which is a distance of a 15-minute walk. Within that reach, the consumer market has tremendous potential. To build 15-minute community life circles in cities is to accelerate the development of community businesses, which allows residents to enjoy convenient and quality life and services near their residences. This is not only an important way to boost consumption, but also an important measure to improve people's well-being and warm their hearts. 

In the past two years, we have worked with related authorities and fully implemented the decisions and plans of the Party Central Committee. We have started the development of 15-minute community life circles in 80 cities in two batches, and introduced services into communities and residential areas. So far, we have built 1,402 community life circles covering more than 32 million residents. The pilot cities have attached great importance to this work, and many of them have incorporated it into local projects concerning people's livelihoods.

Residents in pilot areas have said that their lives have become easier, faster, and smarter than before. Their basic needs, including three daily meals and necessities, have been met in the community life circles. On this basis, we are striving to meet their personalized, diversified, and specific needs. A survey showed that the residents' comprehensive satisfaction rating reached 93% in pilot areas. Local examples include neighborhood centers and smart food markets in Jiangsu province, Zhejiang province, and Shanghai; community workshops and community libraries in cities such as Ji'nan and Fuzhou; and dynamic maps of life service outlets in 10 cities, including Beijing and Tianjin, with the supply and demand for community consumptions being monitored dynamically through big data.

Next, we will make a summary on the basis of the preliminary work and offer solutions to the problems. We will launch a three-year initiative to build 15-minute community life circles nationwide. Generally speaking, we will adopt city-specific or community life circle-specific measure to meet people's needs. We will not follow a uniform standard or sample, but provide personalized, diversified, and specialized solutions. We will improve the layout plan for community consumption, strengthen consumption platforms and facilities, provide more convenient and smarter services, and diversify consumer businesses. We will encourage all cities at and above the prefecture level, where conditions permit, to take action and build 15-minute community life circles in various forms by 2025 to meet the basic daily needs of the people.

Based on the problems and needs of great concern to the people, as well as the preliminary pilot experiences, we will focus on the matters of people's urgent needs. First, we will develop convenience stores and breakfast stalls. Convenience stores allow people to buy necessities within a 15-minute walk. Breakfast stalls are an urgent need of the people. We will promote more chain, branded convenience stores and breakfast stalls to enter communities and introduce some special, traditional, and entrepreneurial market players. 

Second, we will develop food markets and repair shops. Food markets include large markets and small vegetable shops. We will upgrade them in line with certain standards with more focus on the environment, hygiene, and quality control to assure people in their consumption. Repair shops are mainly engaged in services such as duplicating keys and repairing shoes to meet residents' daily needs.

Third, we will offer better elderly care and child care. We will build and improve service facilities to alleviate people's concerns.

In a word, our work will promote consumption and serve as an important people's well-being project. We will stay problem-oriented and solve issues that are of urgent concern to the people. We will work to transfer the list of people's needs into a list of satisfaction over 15-minute community life circles and build them into happy circles of community for residents. Thank you.