Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce: Carry out the declaration work for pilot cities of the modern commercial distribution system in 2025.

Notice on the Application for Pilot Cities for Modern Commercial and Trade Circulation System in 2025 Finance Bureau [2025] No. 13 Provincial, autonomous region, municipality finance departments (bureaus), commerce authorities, Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps finance bureau, commerce bureau: In order to thoroughly implement the decisions and arrangements of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, accelerate the construction of modern commercial and trade circulation system, fully leverage the fundamental role of commercial and trade circulation in guiding production, expanding consumption, and improving people's livelihoods, and to provide support for boosting consumption and expanding domestic demand, in accordance with the "Notice on Supporting the Construction of Modern Commercial and Trade Circulation System Pilot Cities" (Finance Bureau [2024] No. 21, hereinafter referred to as the 'Notice'), the relevant matters regarding the application for 2025 modern commercial and trade circulation system pilot cities are notified as follows: 1. Selectively recommend application cities. In 2025, it is planned to support no more than 20 pilot cities. The scope of application includes municipalities directly under the Central Government, provincial capitals, and other prefecture-level cities, excluding cities already included in the 2024 pilot range. Provincial commerce and finance authorities (referred to as provincial authorities) should, based on the principles of fairness, impartiality, and openness, comprehensively consider factors such as work foundation, development potential, policy environment, and maturity of proposals, organize local cities that meet the criteria to apply, and ultimately determine no more than 1 recommended city. Guiding application cities to take into account their actual conditions, prepare a three-year pilot implementation plan (template in the annex of the 'Notice'), systematically review the construction of the commercial and trade circulation system, analyze existing problems and deficiencies, propose targeted solutions and guarantee mechanisms, and survey to form a preliminary project arrangement. 2. Strongly support the revitalization of consumption. Focus on key tasks such as boosting consumption, while maintaining the overall direction and content of the 'Notice,' encouraging innovation and expansion of working measures to better leverage the guiding role of commercial and trade circulation pilot work in boosting consumption. Firstly, encourage the accelerated application of new technologies. Promote the digitization and intelligence transformation of urban and rural commercial and trade circulation networks, expand applications such as unmanned stores, intelligent shopping guides, virtual experiences, improve the consumer environment. Secondly, encourage the accelerated cultivation of new business formats. Develop digitalized supply chains, cultivate brand chains, instant retail, live streaming e-commerce and other new models, improve the level of consumption supply. Thirdly, encourage the accelerated layout of new facilities. Develop smart logistics, promote intelligent guidance vehicles, automatic sorting, unmanned delivery, and other facilities and equipment to enhance circulation efficiency and reduce consumer costs. 3. Enhance the efficiency of fund utilization. Firstly, accelerate fund disbursement. Provincial level authorities should guide pilot cities to accelerate fund disbursement through the establishment of project reserve repositories, immediate approval and settlement methods. Pilot application cities should clearly specify the overall fund arrangement and disbursement schedule in their plans. Secondly, avoid overlapping support. Pilot cities should avoid overlapping in project fund arrangements, strengthen the connection with ultra-long-term special national bonds, local government special bonds, central infrastructure investment, and other central fiscal special funds, strictly prohibit fund patchwork. Thirdly, improve project management. In plan preparation, pilot cities should adhere to problem-oriented, tailored to local conditions, focus on key points. For non-profit public interest foundational projects, financial funds should be fully guaranteed, strictly prohibited from adding hidden debts or delaying enterprise payments; for operationally market-oriented projects, actively explore leveraging social capital through subsidized loans, service purchases, rewards, and subsidies to jointly promote the construction of modern commercial and trade circulation systems. Fourthly, strengthen daily supervision. Establish a three-level daily supervision mechanism at the provincial, municipal, and district levels, involve independent third-party auditors, supervisory consultancies in decision-making supervision, strengthen fund and project reviews, timely prevent and resolve risks. 4. Other application requirements. Firstly, submit proposals in a timely manner. Provincial authorities should submit the stamped implementation plan of the application city in paper and PDF format (burned on a disc) to the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Finance by April 25, 2025. Failure to submit on time or following the procedure will be deemed as automatic waiver. The Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Finance plan to organize third-party evaluations and work defenses at the end of April, publicly announce the results, and finalize the list of 2025 pilot cities. The fund disbursement progress of the first batch of pilot cities will be an important reference for the 2025 pilot evaluation. No department may delegate the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, and their affiliated administrative institutions, enterprises, or employees in any way (with or without signature) to participate in the preparation of project implementation plans for projects. Once verified, the project application qualification will be canceled; if already qualified through competitive review, the qualification will be revoked; if already supported by the Central Service Industry Development Fund, the support will be withdrawn. Secondly, promote publicity and promotion. Provincial authorities should guide pilot cities to utilize mainstream media, online platforms, government professional reports, and other avenues to strengthen publicity and promotion, actively submit work progress and typical models. The Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Finance will strengthen the exchange and promotion of typical experiences through appropriate means. This notice shall be executed in accordance with the "Notice"."Bonjour, comment a va ?" "Hello, how are you?"This article is selected from the official website of the Ministry of Finance of the People's Republic of China; Edited by GMTEight: Liu Xuan.