An employee sorts and packages e-commerce orders at a cross-border trade company in Rongcheng, East China's Shandong Province on Tuesday. Offical data showed China's exports rose 1.4 percent year-on-year in yuan terms in May, while imports fell 12.7 percent. Photo:cnsphoto

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) announced new measures on Tuesday to support domestic sales of commodities originally produced for export.

The activities, intended to implement guidance issued by the State Council, China's cabinet, last Monday, were announced on Tuesday during a press briefing.

The MOFCOM has planned to hold a series of activities in national pedestrian streets in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, Xi'an, in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, and Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality from July to September, in a bid to broaden the domestic sales channels of export-oriented products.



Pedestrian streets offer advantages in brand building, channel integration and market sentiment, said Li Danghui, deputy Director-General of the department of market operation and consumption promotion of the MOFCOM.

Domestic consumption continued its recovery in May. Data from the MOFCOM showed that from January to May, retail sales reached 1.387 billion yuan ($196 million), down 13.5 percent year-on-year, but the decline was 5.5 percentage points less than that of the first quarter.

The domestic market has great potential to accommodate export-oriented products, said Yang Guoliang, deputy director-general of the foreign trade department of the MOFCOM.

"From the perspective of domestic consumption, the national COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control effort has achieved significant results. Domestic demand is increasing, providing markets for export-oriented industries such as electronics, household appliances, light industry, textiles and clothing, and agricultural products," Yang said.

The rapid development of new consumption models, such as online sales and livestreaming, has opened up sales channels for companies that were previously export-oriented, said a MOFCOM official.

For instance, Viya, one of the top Chinese influencers in the livestreaming segment of Alibaba's e-commerce site Taobao, contributed 2.19 billion yuan to Taobao's total sales of 698.2 billion yuan during the 6/18 shopping festival.