Consumption boost requires society's buy-in

China will work to further develop consumer services to support high-quality economic development and meet people's demand for personalized, diversified and quality services, according to a guideline made public on Saturday. The guideline, issued by the State Council, China's Cabinet, sets out 20 key tasks, including tapping the potential of consumption in sectors such as hospitality, domestic services, elderly care, childcare, entertainment, tourism, sports, education and training.

It also pledges to foster the consumption of digital, green and health services, create new consumption scenarios, relax market access, strengthen regulation and provide more policy support for the consumption of services.

Sectors such as telecommunications, education, elderly care and medical care will be opened up further and opening-up measures in areas such as technology services and tourism implemented, with the resumption of flights to be accelerated, diversified payment services provided, and the granting of visa-free entry extended to more countries as appropriate.

Such concrete actions to expand domestic demand with a focus on boosting service consumption, which is a major driver of the expansion and upgrading of consumption, should also include measures to create jobs, increase people's income and improve the market's confidence in the prospects of the economy.

China's retail sales of services have increased 7.5 percent from a year ago, 4.3 percentage points higher than that of goods, according to official data, showing a pickup tendency.

It is good to see that the central authorities issued a pro-employment policy for migrant workers on Friday that stresses improving their skills training and protecting their legal rights and interests.

Also the central departments, in June, jointly issued a notice on the importance of doing a good job in promoting college graduates and other youth employment and entrepreneurship.

The document proposes 11 policy measures to that end, which notably include providing a "one-time job expansion subsidy" of no more than 1,500 yuan ($209.5) per person to enterprises that recruit unemployed college graduates and registered unemployed youth aged 16-24 who have signed labor contracts and paid unemployment, work-related injury and employee pension insurance premiums for more than three months in full. The subsidy is to be paid from the unemployment insurance fund, and the policy will be valid until the end of next year.