On April 30th, Huai'an municipal government held the conference to release The Implementation Plan on Promoting Huai'an Consumption in Response to the Epidemic Influence (hereinafter referred to as The Plan). While doing a good job in the epidemic prevention and control, the city will also promote its consumption through "20 hard measures" so as to actively overcome the impact of the epidemic outbreak, stimulate people's purchasing power, expand consumer markets, and maintain the steady and healthy growth of Huai'an economy and society.
This year, the spread of COVID-19 has had a certain impact on Huai'an consumption, especially in the industries such as accommodation, catering, hotels, tourism, automobile sales, etc. At present, enterprises with wholesale, retail, accommodation and catering businesses have resumed their work, but our consumers' confidence still needs to be boosted, and the vitality of our consumer markets needs to be further released. Huai'an Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government have attached great importance to the virus impact. On the basis of strictly implementing the measures of "external defense against input and internal defense against rebound", they have followed a series of national and provincial policy documents to promote the city's consumption. Main leaders have taken the lead in "going shopping" themselves to promote consumption through practical actions. The Plan is another important measure to effectively hedge the impact of the epidemic and boost our economy.
It is led by Huai'an Municipal Bureau of Commerce and drafted by Municipal Development and Reform Commission, Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Bureau of Culture, Radio and Tourism, Bureau of Finance and other 25 municipal departments, on the basis of meeting the requirements from the superior, learning from the experience of other regions and widely soliciting opinions. After its implement, more good policies can be introduced to benefit our enterprises as well as consumers, and our consumption can be regulated to the normal track.
The Plan includes a total of 20 measures in 7 aspects, such as cash subsidies, consumption vouchers and bills paid by government, aiming to bring the solid benefits to the general public as well as the enterprises.
1. Taking actions to restore consumption formats. While comprehensively implementing the measures in epidemic prevention and control, Huai'an will actively organize all kinds of promotion activities for consumption. The city will accurately push forward the forms of consumption going back to normal, guide enterprises to do scientific prevention and control, and provide convenient, safe as well as reassuring services for consumers. Financial support for enterprises will be increased, especially the support for micro-enterprises through measures such as credit, extension or renewal of maturing loan, and secured interest rate falling by more than 30%. Financial service products will be offered such as the instalment payment, the deferred payment and the mortgage credit for high-end and durable consumer goods to meet the upgraded consumers' needs.
2. Implementing actions to promote commodity consumption. Huai'an will focus on the areas consumers most care about, which are automobile, home appliance, food, brand agricultural product, Internet, etc., and carry out promotion activities in an all-round way. A. It will encourage car consumption. 1000 yuan per vehicle will be given as the cash subsides for families with their first new energy vehicle or fuel vehicle meeting China VI vehicle emission standards; 500, 1,000, 2,000 or 3,000 yuan will be given to the old vehicles declared worthless in advance according to the specifications; 1.5 times of the original standard and no less than 3,000 yuan per vehicle will be given for families with their old vehicle scrapped and new energy vehicle purchased. B. It will expand home appliance consumption. Home appliance enterprises will be supported to carry out activities such as replacing old appliances with new ones, issuing consumer vouchers, applying discount promotions, etc., so that citizens can purchase appliances at a lower price than usual. C. It will set up food streets. Together with counties, Huai'an city will create characteristic food streets and optimize its catering environment. D. It will provide guidance for online consumption. Huai'an will hold selections of top ten marketing influencers, organize activities themed "New Service for Digital Life", conduct talent shows to pick up internet spokespersons for Xuyi Lobster and Hongze Lake Crab and create new consumption hot spots. E. It will cultivate consumer activities at night. Relying on former business places and food districts such as Shuidukou Business District and Huaihai Road Business District, special late night business, 24-hour convenience store, "Late Night Canteen" and other characteristic catering districts will be operated to develop "Lighting up Huai'an" night economy and color our citizens' nightlife. F. It will support chain operation. The city will enrich citizen life with the concept of "15-minute life circle", support branded convenience stores to expand their branches, and provide financial support for key chain enterprises with new branches set up in 2020. G. It will accelerate the consumption of branded agricultural products. Special sale of "Huai'an Taste" branded agricultural products will be held, and online consumption vouchers will be issued as well. Citizens can purchase the local branded agricultural products on our online platforms "Huai'an Messages", "Wireless Huai'an" and "Huai'an Taste", and enjoy the discount of "100 minus 20" with coupons. H. It will activate the consumer market. A series of promotion activities will be planned in the form of special sales and lottery in commercial complexes, e-commerce platforms, as well as automobile, home appliance, retail and catering enterprises, so as to continuously benefit Huai'an people. For those wholesale, retail and catering enterprises with top 10 sales scale and growth rate in 2020 as well as the newly added batch of limited enterprises before the end of the year, they will be rewarded by the government. I. It will develop new forms of consumption. Concepts of shared consumption, customized consumption and experience consumption will be actively developed as well as the concept of "Intelligence+" eco-consumption. As for the catering enterprises, they will be encouraged to develop the "Central Kitchen +" service mode and launch special activities to realize the efficient distribution between urban and rural areas.
3. Advancing culture and tourism consumption. In order to benefit people through tourism, tickets for all Class A scenic spots in Huai'an will be free before June 30, and 8 full-scale direct lines for tourism resources will also be opened free of charge. Different ticket prices during low and peak seasons and weekday promotion prices in the scenic spots are supported by the authorities. All state-owned scenic spots in Huai'an will be opened for free to medical staff for one year from the end of the epidemic. A series of events, such as "Visiting Rivers, Lakes & Wetlands and Tasting Prawns, Crabs & Delicacies" will be held. Enterprises that carry out various activities for tourism marketing and tourism product publicity will be given financial support. Subsidies will be also given to the travel agencies that have received tourists of a certain scale this year. As for the culture industry, one-million-yuan worth of movie tickets in actual use will be issued throughout the city. Huai'an medical workers at the frontline of the epidemic will be ensured with free movie tickets for one year, and grassroots community workers, college students and other groups will be given certain preferences as well. Theatrical performance teams will be encouraged to carry out public-oriented performances, and offline bookstores to launch a variety of reading services and donation activities. Consumption in sports and fitness will be further activated with Huai'an sports center opened in an orderly manner, and 60% discount offered for the charging items before December 31. Vouchers of no less than 3 million yuan will be released at 35 designated sports venues. Large public sports venues will be guided to open free or at low-cost on holidays.
4. Promoting health consumption through various means. Huai'an will foster health industries, develop the mode of "Internet + Medical Health", support internet construction in hospitals above Class II and promote remote medical treatment, online diagnosis and remote health consultation. It will also encourage more private hospitals and vigorously develop the health service industries such as high-end medical services and health management.
5. Facilitating the consumption of elderly care services. The city will enrich its supply of elderly care services. 51 million yuan raised from cities, counties and districts will be used in promoting the construction of day care centers for the elderly as well as the standardized home-based pension service centers in urban and rural communities. A subsidy mechanism for elderly-oriented transformation in families with advanced aging people will be set up, so as to balance the supply and demand of elderly care services. A special fund of 1.9 million yuan will be set up for the construction and operation of municipal pension institutions to guide all social forces to participate in the field.
6. Improving the consumption of household services. Huai'an will expand its supply of high-quality household services and encourage enterprises in the field to be standardized, branded and in chain. For those household service enterprises owned by employees themselves will be granted by the government.
7. Optimizing the overall consumption environment. Huai'an will continue to optimize its consumption environment and provide public with "one-stop" advisory services in terms of public credit information and consumption warning tips. Special treatment of small caterings and workshops will be push forward including the promise of unreasonable return in offline stores and the ensured food safety and product quality. The city will also open up new channels to safeguard consumers' rights through hotlines "12345" and "12315" and other means in accordance with the law.