China's national service consumption season for this year was launched at a ceremony in Nanjing, capital city of east China's Jiangsu Province, on Tuesday, marking a major initiative to boost service consumption and growth in the service sector.
Co-hosted by the Ministry of Commerce and China Media Group (CMG), the initiative aims to cultivate new consumption hotspots while fostering a virtuous cycle between supply and demand in China's service economy.
The initiative brings together central government departments, national-level industry associations, local governments and leading platform enterprises to jointly hold more than 160 key events, so as to innovate consumption scenarios, unlock consumer potential, expand high-quality service supply, and meet diversified public demand.
Tuesday's launch ceremony also featured a series of exhibitions and sales activities, during which a "service consumption benefits package" was rolled out. The package includes measures to benefit both the public and businesses in areas such as elderly care, childcare, catering, domestic services, and cultural and tourism industries.
Jiangsu's service consumption expenditure accounted for 46.3 percent of its total consumer spending in 2024, 0.2 percentage point higher than the national average.
China launches service consumption season
The death toll from a landfill collapse in the central Philippine city of Cebu has risen to eight by Monday morning as search and rescue operations continued for another 28 missing people.
The landfill collapse occurred on Thursday as dozens of sanitation workers were working at the site. The disaster has already caused injuries of 18 people.
Family members of the missing people said the rescue progress is slow, and the hope for the survival of their loved ones is fading.
"For me, maybe I’ve accepted the worst result already because the garbage is poisonous and yesterday, it was raining very hard the whole day. Maybe they’ve been poisoned. For us, alive or dead, I hope we can get their bodies out of the garbage rubble," said Maria Kareen Rubin, a family member of a victim.
Families have set up camps on high ground near the landfill, awaiting news of their relatives. Some people at the site said cries for help could still be heard hours after the landfill collapsed, but these voices gradually faded away.
Bienvenido Ranido, who lost his wife in the disaster, said he can't believe all that happened.
"After they gave my wife oxygen, my kids and I were expecting that she would be saved that night because she was still alive. But the night came and till the next morning, they didn't manage to save her," he said.
Death toll in central Philippine landfill collapse rises to eight
