Trade in the old for the new, and you need more efforts (everyone talks)

　　Firmly implementing the strategy of expanding domestic demand and expanding residents’ consumption is an important focus. In this issue, everyone talks about promoting the trade-in of consumer goods and tapping the consumption potential, talking about understanding, talking about measures and gathering consensus.

　　-editor　　

　　Improve the quality of supply

　　Tian Yifan

　　Promoting the trade-in of consumer goods is not only a powerful measure to enhance the momentum of economic growth, continue to consolidate and enhance the economic recovery, but also a natural strategy to promote high-quality development.

　　Trade-in should be market-oriented and based on consumers’ willingness. At present, China’s automobile, home appliances and home improvement markets are complex, and a considerable number of products have a long service life and high energy consumption emissions. Some of them still have certain security risks because of long-term use. At the same time, with the improvement of residents’ living standards, the masses’ demand for higher quality, smarter, greener and more personalized consumer goods is also growing. How to stimulate potential consumption? How to make people willing to spend? In the final analysis, it is necessary to continuously enhance the adaptability of supply to demand, and lead and create new demand with high-quality supply.

　　Trade-in of the old for the new, while promoting more high-quality durable consumer goods to enter residents’ lives, it also brings new opportunities for enterprises to develop. All walks of life conform to the trend of consumption upgrading, aim at market demand, and make excellent products and services, which will certainly open up a broader development space in the trade-in action.

　　Policy precision support

　　Luo Shanshan

　　Promoting the trade-in of consumer goods is a systematic project, which requires a good combination of policies. On the premise of market-oriented, we should increase policy support, strengthen government guidance, fully mobilize the enthusiasm of all parties, and enlarge the role of benefiting the people and enterprises.

　　Trade-in of consumer goods has a trillion-dollar market space. Making good use of policy tools can play the role of "four or two" and release the consumption multiplication effect. For example, during the "2024 National Online New Year Festival", major e-commerce platforms launched trade-in promotions for more than 200 categories and more than 1,000 kinds of household appliances, which led to the online sales of energy-saving central air conditioners and folding screen mobile phones increasing by 262.1% and 131.2% respectively. On the one hand, promoting the trade-in of old products can be organically integrated into activities such as "Consumption Promotion Year" and "Home Appliances Going to the Countryside", and enterprises can be encouraged to provide affordable products and services to meet diversified consumption needs through various means such as government support and profit-making by enterprises. On the other hand, we should make good use of the "baton" of standards, give overall consideration to the affordability of enterprises and the acceptance of consumers, give play to the traction of standards such as environmental protection, safety and recycling, and promote the development of more consumer goods towards high-end, intelligent and green.

　　Make good use of fiscal, financial, taxation and other policy tools, make a fuss about improving consumption conditions and innovating consumption scenarios, open up the blocking points that restrict consumption, promote the synergy between production, supply and marketing, upstream and downstream, online and offline, and form a joint force, which will surely further release consumption potential.

　　Promote recycling

　　Zhang Xinxin

　　From a practical point of view, it will be easier to recycle old things and more motivated to replace them with new ones. It is an important link to implement the trade-in action of consumer goods and strengthen the "trade-in+recycling" logistics system and the development of new models.

　　Scrap is a misplaced resource. Taking new energy vehicles as an example, its rapid development has boosted the consumption of lithium, nickel, cobalt and other resources by new energy batteries. The overall content of major metals in retired batteries is about 10 times higher than that of primary ore, and the recycling value is very high. Promoting large-scale recycling is an important move to promote resource conservation and intensive utilization and promote the green transformation of development mode. In reality, whether the recycling is standardized, whether the channels are smooth, whether the service is convenient and whether the price is reasonable has a great influence on the public’s willingness to change. Standardize the development of the second-hand commodity market, provide services such as door-to-door disassembly and handling, solve the problems of difficult disassembly and handling of used household appliances, and appropriately increase the valuation of old products and purchase discounts. These measures can stimulate consumers’ enthusiasm for replacing old ones with new ones.

　　Many old machines and things have the potential of "turning waste into treasure". Unblocking the recycling chain of resources, improving convenience and cost performance, and forming a complete closed loop of production, consumption, recycling and reuse will provide strong support for trade-in and truly maximize the utilization of renewable resources.

　　People’s Daily (April 10, 2024, 05 edition)