China aims to improve consumption experience for international visitors

BEIJING, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- China is encouraging its cities to take multipronged measures to nurture an internationalized consumption environment that provides convenience and comfort for overseas visitors.

According to a policy notice, issued by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Commerce, which was made public on Tuesday, the government will this year select 15 pilot cities that are eligible to receive targeted central government funding for their efforts to optimize the consumption environment at the local level.

Per the policy, the 15 pilot cities should be those cities that have strong consumption growth potential and typically receive large numbers of overseas visitors. The 15 cities will be confirmed following a competitive review process, and will be announced at a later date, according to the notice.

The policy is designed to further enrich the supply of high-quality goods and services for consumption, optimize international payment services, and improve multilingual services in hotspot areas, the notice said.

Funding support will range from 100 million yuan (about 14 million U.S. dollars) to 200 million yuan per city over a two-year period.

Specifically, the funds will encourage the selected cities to renovate and upgrade key shopping hubs, diversify consumption scenarios, promote tax refunds for international visitors, optimize payment services by increasing POS payment services coverage, and improve multilingual services in hotspot areas such as scenic areas, hotels, airports and railway stations, according to the notice.