The reporter recently learned that in order to promote the construction and upgrading of the 15 minute convenient living circle in the city, relevant departments will launch new measures, focusing on serving "one elderly and one small", and creating an upgraded version of the 15 minute convenient living circle in the city; Promote the extension of the 15 minute convenient living circle in cities from key cities to eligible county towns. Experts believe that the 15 minute convenient living circle in cities is an important carrier for adapting to changes in population structure and meeting the daily consumption needs of different age groups. In the future, we need to focus on tackling key areas, strengthen targeted support, and make good use of financial tools to make precise efforts in three directions, promoting the sustainable development of the convenient living circle in the city. The "Circle" creates a 15 minute convenient living circle in a city with vibrant consumption. It serves community residents within a 15 minute walking radius and aims to meet their daily basic and quality consumption needs. It is a community commercial district formed by the aggregation of multiple business formats. We are a smart store operating 24 hours a day, with an intelligent sorting system that can quickly pick medicine and efficiently serve surrounding residents. ”A staff member of Chenxinyuan Community Store in Jiaomen West, Dingdang Smart Pharmacy, Fengtai District, Beijing told reporters. From here, there are two large vegetable markets within one kilometer, including tailor shops, shoe repair shops, electrical repair shops, and other businesses. This is one of the corners of the 15 minute convenient living circle construction in Fengtai District, Beijing. Fengtai has built 72 15 minute convenient living circles in cities and has been included in the second batch of pilot zones for the comprehensive promotion of 15 minute convenient living circles in cities nationwide, "said Zhang Yanlin, Deputy Secretary of the Fengtai District Committee and District Mayor, recently. The recently released "2024 Report on the Development of Urban 15 Minute Convenient Life Circles" shows that as of the end of 2024, a total of 5188 urban 15 minute convenient life circles have been built in 210 pilot areas across the country, serving 118 million community residents. Commercial outlets within the urban 15 minute convenient life circles have created a total of 7.324 million job opportunities, a year-on-year increase of 44.9%. Liu Xiangdong, Deputy Director of the Research and Information Department of the China International Economic Exchange Center, stated in an interview with reporters that building a 15 minute convenient living circle in cities is not only an important measure to stimulate the potential of high-frequency essential consumption in communities, but also an important carrier to adapt to changes in population structure and meet the daily consumption needs of different age groups. From the perspective of residents' convenience, building a 15 minute convenient living circle in the city can effectively meet the high-frequency rigid needs of residents, improve the repurchase rate and stability of consumption. From the perspective of consumer group differences, it can better meet the daily consumption needs of specific groups such as' one elderly and one young '. From the perspective of consumer formats, it can meet personalized, diversified, and high-quality needs, enhance customer stickiness, and create a peaceful and comfortable neighborhood relationship and community consumption scene. ”Liu Xiangdong said. In recent years, policies have provided continuous support for the construction of convenient living circles in cities. In 2023, the Ministry of Commerce and 13 other departments issued the "Three Year Action Plan for Comprehensively Promoting the Construction of 15 Minute Convenient Life Circles in Cities (2023-2025)", which proposes to comprehensively promote the construction of various types of 15 Minute Convenient Life Circles in prefecture level and above cities with conditions nationwide by 2025. In March of this year, the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Special Action Plan to Boost Consumption", which proposed to accelerate the completion of community resident service outlets such as shopping, catering, housekeeping, and maintenance, in conjunction with the construction of convenient living circles and embedded service facilities in urban communities. In order to comprehensively promote the construction of the 15 minute convenient living circle in cities, focus on benefiting people's livelihoods and promoting consumption, on September 8th, the Ministry of Commerce and 11 other departments issued a notice on the release of the second batch of pilot areas for the comprehensive promotion of the 15 minute convenient living circle in cities, identifying 30 pilot areas, including Haidian District, Fengtai District, Shijingshan District in Beijing, Hexi District in Tianjin, Tangshan City and Baoding City in Hebei Province, Yuncheng City in Shanxi Province, etc. The notice proposes that relevant provincial departments should increase their work guidance and policy support, urge pilot areas to strengthen organizational leadership, refine work plans, and strive to achieve full coverage of convenient living circles in the main urban area and eligible county communities within about 2 years. At the same time as policy support, enterprises actively layout. For example, Alibaba's new retail brand Hema has listed the affordable community store format as a key business, and the affordable community supermarket "Super Box Calculation NB" has entered street facing shops in residential communities in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai in the past two years. Newly opened stores often have to restock within hours, which is very popular among consumers, "said the person in charge of Hema. As of the end of August, the number of" Super Box Count NB "stores nationwide has approached 300. In Liu Xiangdong's view, the 15 minute convenient living circle in the city involves a variety of business formats, and policy support measures need to be improved. At present, the construction of the 15 minute convenient living circle in cities mainly focuses on life security related living formats. Some old communities lack elderly and child friendly service facilities, and the coverage of digital facilities such as smart express lockers and community group buying self pickup points is low. The supply of cultural and leisure services for quality improvement also needs to be improved, "he said. Currently, the construction of convenient living circles in cities is facing the important task of expanding and upgrading the surrounding areas. Experts suggest strengthening policy innovation and institutional innovation, and creating a convenient living circle that integrates circles and links together. On the one hand, the focus is on serving the elderly and the young, promoting a more optimized layout, richer business formats, higher quality services, and smarter management, and building a convenient living circle into an all age friendly quality living circle that is suitable for living, business, travel, and shopping, and suitable for the elderly and young. Yu Hua, Deputy Director of the Institute of International Trade in Services at the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, stated in an interview with reporters that it is necessary to strengthen human resource reserves, encourage domestic service enterprises to access intelligent scheduling platforms, expand store service scope, and enhance service capabilities. On the other hand, we will increase funding support for the construction of convenient living circles in cities within fifteen minutes. Liu Xiangdong suggested providing reasonable subsidies for basic support businesses such as vegetable markets and convenience stores, as well as low profit businesses such as repair shops and sewing shops, and providing necessary tax reduction and preferential support for community commercial enterprises or chain enterprises. In addition, special loans or interest subsidies can be provided for the development of community businesses, credit guarantees can be provided for small and micro merchants in the community, and support can be given to include community commercial facilities in the pilot scope of infrastructure REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts). Li Xuesong, the head of the Department of Economics at the School of Economics and Management of Wuhan University, believes that a sustainable urban construction investment and financing system should be established, providing innovative financing tools, actively developing financial instruments such as REITs and asset-backed securities, revitalizing existing assets, and forming a virtuous cycle of investment. (New Society)