At the Chengdu Summit Forum of (China) Consumption and Economics Society 2018 in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, scholars gathered to discuss opportunities and challenges China faces in its efforts to transform and upgrade domestic consumption.

Wang Wei, a professor from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, said that China’s consumption demand and industrial structure have undergone several rounds of upgrading in the past 40 years of reform and opening up. At the beginning of reform and opening up, industrial development determined the capacity of consumption in a seller’s market. As the process of reform and opening up accelerates, a buyer’s market has formed and the upgrading of consumption demand determines the development of the industrial structure, Wang said.

The contribution rate of consumption to China’s economic growth increased each year from 2010 to 2017, said Liu Siwei, a professor from Hunan University of Commerce, adding that the retail industry is an important part of the commodity circulation field and the high-quality development of this industry should be enhanced. The real retail industry should be consumer oriented, embrace the internet and intensify the innovation in the service sector, Liu said

(Edited and translated by Yu Hui )