On August 9, the State Information Office held a press conference to introduce the Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of Service Consumption. Wang Dongtang, Director of the Department of Trade in Services and Commercial Services of the Ministry of Commerce, introduced the development of the national catering industry and the next measures to promote the high-quality development of catering consumption.

Wang Dongtang said that the catering industry is closely related to the daily life of the broad masses of people, and the catering industry is also a category that accounts for the largest proportion of the total retail sales of social consumer goods, which has played an important role in promoting consumption, benefiting people's livelihood and stabilizing employment. According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, since 2023, China's entire catering industry has maintained a rapid growth trend. Last year, the national catering income was 5.29 trillion yuan, the scale reached a record high, an increase of 20.4%, and the contribution rate to the growth of the total retail sales of social consumer goods reached 28.2%. In the first half of this year, the national catering revenue reached 2.6 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.9%, and generally continued to maintain a rapid growth trend, and the growth rate was 4.7 percentage points faster than the retail sales of goods, and the contribution rate of social zero growth reached 22.8%.

Wang Dongtang introduced that in the next step, the Ministry of Commerce will work with relevant departments to seriously implement the relevant requirements of the documents issued by The State Council, and do specific work from three aspects to promote the high-quality development of catering consumption.

First, we will accelerate the implementation of policies. In March this year, the Ministry of Commerce, together with relevant departments, issued guidelines on promoting the high-quality development of the catering industry, proposing a series of policy measures in terms of ensuring food safety, improving the quality of catering services, innovating consumption scenarios and optimizing the business environment. At the same time, various places such as Shanghai, Beijing, Shaanxi and other places are also based on local conditions, combined with the actual situation of the local, also introduced a series of specific implementation measures, and some places are studying and formulating detailed measures. The Ministry of Commerce will guide all localities to establish and improve the working mechanism for promoting the high-quality development of the catering industry, strengthen overall planning and coordination, promote the implementation of relevant policies, and continue to release policy dividends.

Second, we will work hard to stimulate consumption. The Ministry of Commerce will work with relevant departments to continue to organize the "Chinese Food Festival" series of consumption promotion activities, as well as the "Chinese Food Culture Season" related activities, and focus on cultivating hot spots for catering consumption; The Ministry of Commerce will also cultivate and identify a number of Chinese food districts, promote the digitization level of the catering industry, and promote the integrated development of catering and commerce, cultural and tourism; Guide localities to speed up the development of specialty catering, cultivate specialty snack industry clusters, and the famous dishes, famous snacks, famous chefs, and famous restaurants clearly proposed in The State Council document. This year, the Ministry of Commerce and the China Media Group jointly produced the "Three meals and four Seasons" food tourism program, some programs have been broadcast on TV, and achieved good viewing and publicity effects, which has played a very good role in activating the vitality of food consumption and effectively driving local food tourism consumption.

Finally, we should actively create a good environment for development. The Ministry of Commerce will work with relevant departments to actively optimize the business environment of the catering industry, standardize the business order of the industry, explore and publicize the excellent deeds of catering employees, and enhance the professional honor of catering employees. The Ministry of Commerce will also continue to monitor the development of the catering industry, summarize and sort out the effective practices and typical experiences in promoting the high-quality development of the catering industry, especially the good experiences and good cases in scene innovation, brand cultivation, digital empowerment and optimizing the business environment, timely publicity and promotion, and work closely with relevant departments and localities to jointly promote the high-quality development of the catering industry.