By Wang Wei & Wang Qing, DRC

2018-8-13

At present, there are several problems with the development of China’s consumer service industry. For example, the effective supply for some industry is still inadequate, the quality for the supply is yet to be improved, and the structural imbalance, inadequate supply, relatively insufficient guarantee, low degree of openness and weak international competitiveness and some other problems still call for solutions. Attention should be paid to pushing ahead with the supply-side structural reform in consumer service industry by increasing the supply, raising the quality, accelerating the reform, enhancing its opening-up and improving the environment so as to realize the innovative development of consumer service industry. Accelerating the development of consumer service industry is of great significance, and it will be conducive to meeting the residents’ needs for consumption upgrading and better life, it will help with the realization of the reform in the quality, efficiency and growth impetus of service industry development; it will contribute to the cultivation and vitalization of the new growth impetus for economic development; it will be propitious to enhance China’s global impact and competitiveness.

Problems and obstacles in the development of current consumer service industry:

I. Profound problems with the development of consumer service industry: 1.The effective supply for some of the consumer service industries is not adequate; 2. The quality of the supply for some consumer service industries is relatively low; 3. There is structural imbalance in the supply of consumer service industry; 4. The talents, capital, infrastructure guarantee for consumer service industry is not satisfactory; 5. Its openness and international competitiveness is yet to be enhanced.

II. Institutional and mechanism obstacles in the development of consumer service industry: 1. There are still too many access restrictions in light of some industries; 2. The supervisory mindset and institutional mechanism still lag far behind the situation; 3. Some of the laws and regulations still call for further improvement; 4. Its supporting mechanism is still unsound. Policy options on further deepening the supply-side structural reform in consumer service industry: I. Supply should be increased, which includes promoting the effective supply for consumer services, fostering and developing newly-emerged consumer service industries, encouraging the innovation in both technology and business models. II. Quality should be improved, including raising the service quality and enhancing its management.

III. The reform should be accelerated, and this includes further easing the market access and encouraging fair competition, reducing administrative approval procedures and processes, accelerating the coordination in supervision and pushing ahead with supervisory innovation, strengthening the coordination among different supervisory institutions and innovating the approaches and methods of regulations, easing the restrictions on entering and exiting of market entities and pushing forward the reform of state-owned enterprises and organizations in consumer service industry.

IV. Further opening-up should be promoted, which includes the opening-up of consumer service sectors, strengthening the exploration of open comprehensive pilot areas, optimizing service trade structure and facilitating international consumption.

V. The environment should be optimized, and this includes improving public service facilities and commercial service carriers, strengthening the construction of laws and regulations and standard systems as well as other relevant supporting mechanisms.