CCTV:

In recent years, service consumption has attracted increasing attention. How did service consumption develop in China in 2025? What are the next steps to further unleash the potential of service consumption and promote its development? Thank you.

Yan Dong:

Thank you very much to the reporter for those questions. Just now, my colleague also introduced the relevant situation regarding boosting consumption and goods consumption. Now, let me provide some specific information on service consumption, which has been a focus of concern.

As everyone knows, service consumption has characteristics such as high consumption frequency, strong multiplier effects and sustainable growth. It also plays an important role in expanding domestic demand and improving people's well-being. The Ministry of Commerce has earnestly implemented the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. As the leading department for promoting service consumption, we have worked with relevant departments to actively introduce supportive policies, innovate consumption scenarios, and build platforms and mechanisms to promote the prosperity and development of the service consumption market. This is reflected in three areas:

First, service consumption has maintained fast growth. In 2025, retail sales of services increased 5.5% year on year. At the same time, per capita service consumption expenditure grew 4.5% year on year and accounted for 46.1% of total per capita consumption expenditure.

Second, key sectors have developed rapidly. Retail sales of cultural, sports and leisure services, communication and information services, tourism consultation and rental services, and transportation services have all maintained double-digit growth. Per capita spending on education, culture and entertainment increased 9.4% year on year. A total of 2,485 tourist trains operated throughout the year, up 33.6% year on year. Catering revenue reached 5.8 trillion yuan, rising 3.2% year on year.

Third, the service consumption market has become more active. Regional sports events such as the Jiangsu Football City League and the Zhejiang Provincial City Basketball League have gained nationwide popularity, while "Ne Zha 2" set historic box office records in Chinese cinema. Sports-driven travel and film-inspired culinary tourism have emerged as new trends. Meanwhile, new business formats, including low-altitude flights, cruises and yacht travel, and tourism performances, have continued to flourish, creating new opportunities for service consumption growth.

Moving forward, we will leverage the coordination mechanism for promoting service consumption development to drive continued expansion of service consumption and foster high-quality growth. We will focus on work in the following three areas:

First, we will continue to optimize the supply of services. We will continue to implement initiatives to improve the quality of service delivery for the public's benefit, and work with relevant departments to enhance service supply in culture and entertainment, tourism and leisure, catering and accommodation, sports events, and health care. We will adhere to the principle of opening up to the outside world and reducing restrictions in the domestic market. On the one hand, we will expand high-standard opening-up in the service sector, deepen opening-up pilots in cloud computing, biotechnology, and wholly foreign-owned hospitals, guide foreign investment toward service consumption areas, and enhance the supply of high-quality, diversified services. On the other hand, we will remove unreasonable restrictive measures in service consumption that do not conform to market principles and hinder consumption upgrading, reduce invisible barriers, and encourage fair competition and orderly development among all types of business entities.

Second, we will cultivate new growth drivers of service consumption. We will capitalize on consumption upgrading trends and intensify efforts to cultivate new growth drivers in service consumption, including transportation services, domestic services, online audiovisual services, tourism services, automotive aftermarket services, and inbound consumption. We will refine supporting policies, advance pilot programs, cultivate quality brands and stimulate development vitality in related sectors to better meet people's evolving needs for service consumption.

Third, we will innovate diverse consumption scenarios. We will intensify efforts to advance pilot projects for new consumption forms, models, and scenarios, leveraging the leading role of pilot cities. We will promote the integrated development of commerce, tourism, culture, sports and health care, and develop a group of highly visible and broadly influential new consumption scenarios. In combination with organizing key activities to promote consumption, such as the "Service Consumption Season" and "Chinese Food Festival," we will guide localities to develop integrated consumption scenarios like "Tourism plus," "Cuisine plus," "Sports plus" and "IP plus," delivering more diverse, exciting and convenient experiences for consumers. Thank you.

Jia Huili:

Today's press conference has now concluded. Thanks to our speakers and to our friends from the media. Goodbye.

Translated and edited by Liao Jiaxin, Xiang Bin, Xu Kailin, Zhang Yuxin, Wang Yiming, Li Huiru, Gong Yingchun, Zhou Jing, Wang Wei, David Ball, Jay Birbeck, and Tudor Finneran. In case of any discrepancy between the English and Chinese texts, the Chinese version is deemed to prevail.