CCTV News: The State Council Information Office held a series of press conferences on the afternoon of January 15. Li Yongyu, deputy representative of the International Trade Negotiation of the Ministry of Commerce, said at the meeting that the business operation in 2024 was generally stable and steady, and made positive contributions to the economic recovery and improvement. The achievements of this year are mainly reflected in the following aspects: First, domestic consumption has grown steadily. The total retail sales of consumer goods in the first 11 months was 44.3 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.5%. From the perspective of commodity consumption, the well-known policies such as old-for-new have driven sales of automobiles, home appliances, home decoration, kitchens and bathrooms and other products exceeding 1.3 trillion yuan. Among them, green and smart products are very popular, especially new energy vehicles, first-level energy-consuming home appliances, smart home products, etc. From the perspective of service consumption, with the continuous emergence of new scenarios and normals of service consumption, the potential of service consumption has been continuously released. The retail sales of service consumption increased by 6.4% in the first 11 months, among which information and entertainment consumption is relatively active.

Secondly, foreign trade hit a new high. The import and export of goods for the whole year was 43.8 trillion yuan, an increase of 5%, setting a record high, of which exports and imports increased by 7.1% and 2.3% respectively. Service imports and exports in the first 11 months were 6.7 trillion yuan, an increase of 14.2%, and it is expected that service imports and exports will also hit a record high for the whole year. For example, with the active promotion of visa-free policy, the popularity of "China travel" continues to heat up. According to statistics, the export of travel services has increased by 1.5 times.

The third is to continuously optimize the investment attraction structure. In the first 11 months, 52,000 new foreign-invested enterprises were established, attracting 749.7 billion yuan of foreign capital. We have continuously relaxed market access, and the access restrictions in the manufacturing industry have been "cleared", and investment attraction in high-tech manufacturing accounts for 11%. The pilot opening of service industries such as telecommunications and medical care is also being promoted. Many projects are already under negotiation and implementation.

Fourth, foreign investment cooperation has developed steadily. In the first 11 months, foreign non-financial direct investment was 915.2 billion yuan, an increase of 12.4%. The new contracts signed for external contracting projects were 1.4 trillion yuan, an increase of 13%. Economic and trade cooperation for the high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road" continues to deepen and implement, and highlights of cooperation in green, digital, blue and other fields continue to emerge.

Fifth, multilateral and bilateral economic and trade cooperation has achieved fruitful results. In the multilateral aspect, we have promoted the 13th Ministerial Conference of the WTO to achieve pragmatic results of "1+10". In 2024, we also reached an agreement on investment and trade facilitation and an e-commerce agreement. At the same time, the G20, BRICS countries, APEC, SCO and other mechanisms have also reached a number of economic and trade consensus. In 2024, we have also continued to expand our "circle of friends" of our free trade partners. Now the trade proportion of free trade partners has exceeded one-third. For example, last year, we substantively ended the negotiations with ASEAN Free Trade Zone 3.0 version and signed a free trade upgrade agreement with Peru to promote the entry into force or implementation of free trade agreements with Serbia, Maldives, Singapore and other countries. We have also signed a framework agreement on the common economic partnership for development with 23 African countries.