context: The national commerce work conference organised by MofCOM (Ministry of Commerce) summarised work done in 2023 and planned priorities for 2024. Aside from the usual talking points, the idea of safeguarding national economic security surfaced again, calling for greater vigilance in addressing major risks in trade.
The work conference discussed work priorities in eight areas, including
- expand consumption
- improve the market and distribution system
- leverage 'consumption promotion year' and organise various consumer promotion activities
- stimulate consumption potential
- cultivate and strengthen new types of consumption
- stabilise and expand traditional consumption
- upgrade service consumption quality
- strengthen momentum for foreign trade
- upgrade goods trade
- expand intermediate goods trade, cross-border e-commerce exports, innovative service trade and digital trade
- develop the brand of 'Invest in China'
- promote stable quantity and quality improvement of foreign investment
- relax market access for foreign investment,
- strengthen services and guarantees for foreign investment
- continue to build a first-class business environment that is market-oriented, governed by law and internationalised
- enhance the efficiency of open platforms and expand institutional opening
- implement upgrade strategies in pilot free trade zones
- deepen comprehensive pilots of opening up the service industry
- enhance the functions of various parks, such as national-level economic and technological development zones
- promote the high-quality development of the BRI (Belt and Road Initiative)
- implement the eight specific actions of the BRI
- coordinate and promote landmark projects and 'small and beautiful' livelihood projects
- expand cooperation in digital, green and other fields
- improve international economic and trade cooperation mechanisms
- promote innovation in outbound investment
- improve the quality of cooperation
- accelerate the signing of high-standard investment agreements
- improve the quality of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones
- actively participate in global economic governance and strengthen multilateral and bilateral economic and trade cooperation
- support the 13th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation to reach pragmatic results
- expand the scale of high-standard pilot free trade zones
- safeguard economic security
- strengthen the construction of rules in foreign commerce
- prevent and resolve major risks