Shanghai on Wednesday, the first day of 2025, kicked off a month-long shopping season from the New Year's Day to the Spring Festival, with commercial circles in the city creating a wide variety of scenarios to innovate shoppers' experience.
Running until Feb 4--the end of the eight-day break during the Spring Festival holiday, the shopping season in Shanghai will see districts roll out hundreds of promotional activities to boost consumer spending and attract more visitors to the commercial circles by organizing public entertainment activities and exhibitions.
Authorities of the vigorously developing Pudong New Area in Shanghai said their focus is to boost New Year consumption by integrating business, tourism and cultural activities.
The district has released details of more than one hundred event with that theme.
"Through joint operation of business, tourism and cultural activities, we can push our consumers to consume, and bring more concessions to our consumers, to create a different shopping environment for our consumers in the New Year," said Cao Lei, deputy director of the Commission of Commerce of the Pudong New Area.
The Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year,is China's grandest traditional festival when people return to their hometowns for celebrations and family reunion. It falls on January 29 this year and the public holiday will start from the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year.
Shanghai rolls out activity packages to promote holiday consumption
China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao outlined the key priorities of the 32nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting, which opened on Friday in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu province.
In an interview with CGTN ahead of the two-day meeting, Wang said free trade, digital cooperation and green economy are high on the agenda of the meeting.
"The key areas include advancing regional economic integration and the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, supporting the World Trade Organization (WTO) in strengthening digital cooperation and developing green economy. At present, the international situation is marked by intertwined turbulence and chaos, with intensified geopolitical instability. The rise of unilateralism and protectionism poses serious challenges to the international economic and trade order, disrupting global and Asia-Pacific development. Against this backdrop, all parties have higher expectations for this trade ministers' meeting, hoping that it can build consensus and deliver outcomes," Wang said.
This year marks China's third time hosting the APEC meetings and the 35th anniversary of its membership.
By 2025, China had become the largest trading partner of 13 APEC economies. Trade between China and APEC economies reached 3.7 trillion U.S. dollars, accounting for 57.8 percent of China's total foreign trade.
China has signed 24 free trade agreements or economic and trade arrangements with 31 countries and regions, including 15 APEC economies. In recent years, China has also completed upgrades of free trade agreements with APEC economies such as Singapore and Peru.
The minister said that China has always been a firm supporter and an important contributor to APEC.
"We have actively shared our vast market and development opportunities with all parties. China's door to the world will only open wider and wider. Facing the common challenges, China will continue to fulfill its responsibilities as a major country, further deepen reform, expand high-standard opening-up, and continue to provide new opportunities for the Asia-Pacific region and the world with its new achievements in Chinese modernization," the minister said.
China's Commerce Minister outlines priorities for 32nd APEC trade ministers' meeting
