Liaoning strives to achieve comprehensive revitalization: governor

Northeast China's Liaoning Province pledges to make more efforts for the comprehensive revitalization to recapture its vigor, said the governor of the province Li Lecheng at a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday.

Liaoning is located in the country's former heavy industry heartland.

Last year, according to Li, the province's GDP grew by 5.3 percent, surpassing the national growth rate for the first time in a decade.

In the first quarter of 2024, Liaoning's growth rate increased to 5.4 percent, demonstrating even stronger resilience, vitality and creativity in high-quality development.

The governor said efforts will be made in four aspects to achieve comprehensive revitalization in province, including developing new quality productive forces, making breakthroughs in deepening reform and opening up, consolidating advantages in promoting green development, and improving the well-being of the people.

"First, we will strive to excel on the development of new quality productive forces. We will rely on the advantages of scientific and educational resources to accelerate the creation of regional science and technology innovation centers with national influence. We will focus on the four trillion-yuan-level industrial bases of advanced equipment manufacturing, petrochemical and fine chemicals, new metallurgical materials, and high-quality characteristic consumer goods, striving to transform the 'largest variable' of scientific and technological innovation into the 'largest increment' to promote high-quality development," Li said.

"Second, we will strive for new breakthroughs in deepening reform and opening up. We'll continue to improve the business environment and comprehensively deepen reforms so as to promote high-quality development. Third, we will build our strengths in pursuing green development. The green, low-carbon and intelligent transformation of traditional industries is in full swing now. This year, the installed capacity of non-fossil energy will reach 50 percent [in the province]. Fourth, we will take active steps to improve people's well-being," he said.

Liaoning strives to achieve comprehensive revitalization: governor

Customers in Shanghai are flooding back to brick and mortar stores to upgrade their home appliances thanks to advances in energy efficiency and the availability of subsidies offered by local government, home appliance brands and retailers.

A store in Shanghai's downtown Changning District has welcomed an average of 2,800 customers on a daily basis in recent days.

Labels on some home appliances show that customers have access to a 10 percent subsidy as long as the products they buy are energy efficient.

"With this 10-percent subsidy, I decided to make offline purchase at this store. It's cheaper after all," said one customer.

This 10 percent subsidy is offered by the Shanghai government to boost consumption.

Retailers are also offering subsidies, further driving up consumption.

"If a customer is buying a product with grade one energy label, while at the same time has an old machine for replacement, the customer can enjoy a 10 percent subsidy from the government. And our platform and the manufacturer together offer a 10 percent subsidy for trade-in goods. And we are also offering an additional seven to eight percent subsidy for sets, and a five percent subsidy for single items. So the customer can generally get a 35 to 40 percent subsidy," said Yang Xu, procurement and sales manager with a Shanghai branch of China's e-commerce giant JD.com.

Noticeably, people are willing to buy more products, especially more high-end models.

"Things are now cheaper. So I have money left for high-end products. I've spent 20,000 yuan (about 2,764 U.S. dollars) here. In the past, I would not choose a refrigerator of more than 13,000 yuan (about 1796 U.S. dollars). I would only buy one with half its price. And I was not planning to buy a TV. But now, I've decided to buy one," said one customer.

Boosting consumption is just one upside of such trade-in programs. Replacing old machines with more energy efficient models also aligns with the country's carbon reduction goals.

China has pledged to achieve peak carbon emissions by 2030, and carbon neutrality by 2060.

Home appliances trade-in programs boost consumption, protect environment