As the National People's Congress approaches, following the conclusion of local legislative sessions across the country, regions are reflecting on their achievements in 2025 and defining key priorities for 2026. This year marks the beginning of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, with localities setting clear targets, implementing systematic layouts, and taking precise actions to ensure a strong start.
Driving Capability Through Innovation Scientific and technological innovation remains a central focus for the year ahead. Regions are actively developing artificial intelligence, nurturing and expanding emerging and future industries, and deepening the integration of technological innovation with industrial innovation.
The implementation of "AI+" initiatives has been frequently included in local government work reports. Areas are strengthening AI infrastructure and platform construction, promoting deep application across various sectors, and accelerating mutual empowerment between technological innovation and scenario expansion. For instance, Beijing is advancing the development of new infrastructure like intelligent computing power, fully implementing the "AI+" initiative, and establishing national AI application pilot bases. Shanghai is deepening its "AI+" actions, enhancing the layout of computing facilities, industry-specific data corpora, and vertical models, promoting the widespread use of next-generation intelligent terminals and agents, accelerating the intelligent transformation of key industries, adding over 50 advanced smart factories, and actively cultivating new smart-native models and formats. Zhejiang is focusing on manufacturing, transportation, and public services, cultivating a batch of integrated industry scenarios and high-value, targeted scenarios, and promoting the opening and large-scale application of scenario resources. Guangdong is accelerating the high-level application of AI across all domains, times, and industries.
Deputy Researcher Chen Fengxian from the China Telecom Research Institute stated that "AI+" has become a key engine for cultivating new quality productive forces, reshaping local economic landscapes, and driving the transition towards intelligent, precise, and green development. During the implementation of "AI+" actions, regions should adhere to local conditions and application-oriented approaches, forming a virtuous cycle of mutual empowerment between technology and industry. On one hand, they should leverage their own advantages to identify entry points like "AI+manufacturing" or "AI+agriculture," deeply cultivate vertical fields, and gradually foster representative, replicable application scenarios to avoid herd behavior and homogeneous competition. On the other hand, they should strengthen intelligent infrastructure, integrate resources like computing power and data assets, create a collaborative innovation ecosystem, establish sound fault-tolerant mechanisms and ethical guidelines, and explore regulatory sandbox mechanisms to ensure the healthy, orderly, and secure development of the AI industry.
Aligning with the four emerging industries and six future industries proposed in the suggestions for the 15th Five-Year Plan, regions are targeting breakthroughs in new frontiers. Low-altitude economy, biopharmaceuticals, and other emerging industries, along with embodied AI, bio-manufacturing, quantum technology, and other future industries, have become frequently mentioned priorities.
"Developing emerging and future industries is a crucial engine for transforming old and new growth drivers and an effective pathway to achieving high-quality development," said Professor Feng Hua from the National High-End Think Tank for Sustainable Transportation Innovation. Regions should aim for the technological frontier, follow innovation patterns, improve the innovation ecosystem, support the construction of concept verification centers and pilot bases, and deepen the integration of scientific and industrial innovation. Given the high-risk and long-cycle nature of future industries, they should deepen institutional reforms and explore mechanisms for fault tolerance, error correction, and exoneration for尽职履职.
Generating Momentum Through Reform Localities are persevering with reform, balancing the removal of old impediments with the establishment of new systems, to empower the deeper advancement of high-quality economic development.
"Countering involution" has become a main thread of reform, with multi-pronged efforts aimed at steering economic development away from low-level competition. Addressing irregularities in investment promotion, Beijing and Zhejiang have proposed regular fair competition reviews of policies and measures, continuously dismantling visible and invisible barriers. Henan, Fujian, and Chongqing require strict standardization of practices, adherence to red lines and bottom lines, and comprehensive improvement of quality and efficiency. Concerning issues in industrial development, Shaanxi proposed intensifying efforts to manage overcapacity in key sectors.
Zhang Yuzhe, Director of the High-Tech Industry Research Office at the National Development and Reform Commission's Institute of Industrial Economics and Technological Economics, believes that comprehensively addressing "involuted" competition primarily involves constraining two types of actors—market entities and local governments—to reconstruct the industrial ecosystem, stimulate innovation vitality, enhance industrial competitiveness, and propel industries from quantitative expansion to qualitative improvement. Making "countering involution" a key task, from the perspective of local economic development, can effectively transform development modes, optimize economic structures, and better serve and integrate into the national unified market. At the industrial level, it can drive industrial transformation and upgrading, shift growth drivers, and improve the competitive landscape. For enterprises, it can encourage enhanced innovation capabilities, improve resource allocation efficiency, ameliorate profitability, and achieve high-quality development.
Regions are continuously optimizing the business environment, cultivating fertile ground for innovation, facilitating factor mobility, and reducing costs and burdens for enterprises. Hubei proposed optimizing market access for new fields and formats, removing institutional obstacles for the smooth flow of innovative factors, and accelerating local industrial transformation. As a hub of openness, Guangdong is focusing on creating a first-class market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment. Hainan is carrying out actions to optimize foreign-related services and enhance the international business climate. Furthermore, Liaoning is strictly standardizing administrative inspections involving enterprises, fully implementing "scan-to-enter" inspections for enterprise checks, vigorously promoting inclusive, prudent supervision and flexible law enforcement to minimize disruptions to businesses. Zhejiang is strengthening market order supervision, cracking down on counterfeit goods, false advertising, trade secret infringement, and other illegal activities... Through various measures, regions are further reducing interference with normal business operations and striving to create a stable, fair, and transparent business environment.
Stimulating Vitality Through Consumption Based on local legislative sessions, expanding domestic demand and stimulating consumption are top priorities for the year in regions like Shandong, Shanghai, and Liaoning. Optimizing consumption structures and unleashing consumption vitality are key annual focuses.
There is a focus on fully unleashing the potential of service consumption and new types of consumption. "Service consumption" and "new consumption" are buzzwords in local government work reports. Beijing proposed increasing policy support for service consumption like health, elderly care, and child care, encouraging platforms to innovatively develop businesses such as housekeeping services, and accelerating the cultivation of new growth points in service consumption. Liaoning will vigorously foster emerging leisure consumption such as low-altitude flights, cruise and yacht tourism, and RV camping. Zhejiang is committed to expanding new consumption formats, models, and scenarios, accelerating the development of new consumption like digital-intelligent consumption, self-indulgence spending, and the silver economy, and expanding service consumption in culture, tourism, catering, wellness, and sports.
"The shift in focus in 2026 local government work reports from goods consumption to service consumption and new consumption reflects policymakers' precise grasp of consumption upgrade trends and strategic considerations for cultivating new economic growth points," pointed out Deputy Researcher Nan Yu from the Institute of Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. On one hand, the characteristic shift in resident consumption from material-based to service-oriented and experiential is evident. On the other hand, the multiplier effect of service consumption is significant, effectively driving employment and economic growth.
In 2025, the "Jiangsu Super League" broke through conventional boundaries, skillfully turning event traffic into economic increments. The momentum from such events continues into the new year, with various regions leveraging sports events as key supports for promoting consumption. Guangdong, Zhejiang, Henan, Hubei, Jiangxi, and Liaoning are all positioning sports events as new consumption growth points, using event popularity to drive coordinated development of culture, tourism, sports, and commerce.
Nan Yu believes sports events can boost consumption in three ways: first, direct consumption, such as ticket sales, merchandise, and advertising sponsorships; second, associated consumption, driving spending on "food, accommodation, transportation, tourism, shopping, and entertainment"; third, brand and long-term value, such as enhancing city知名度 and attracting investment and talent.
Experts suggest that when promoting the integrated development of culture, tourism, sports, and commerce through sports events, attention should be paid to precise positioning and differentiated development, assessing long-term operational capacity and genuine market demand, selecting events based on city characteristics to avoid blindly introducing "premium events"; creating immersive consumption scenes, arranging "event-themed consumption zones" around venues and throughout the city to extend the consumption chain; building an industrial ecosystem and enabling it with digital tools, supporting local industries like sports clubs, training, and equipment, and creating incremental revenue and fan engagement through online live streaming, interaction, and derivative content; optimizing policies and public service guarantees, streamlining approval processes for large events, and providing integrated support in security, transportation, and urban appearance.
Enhancing consumption capacity and boosting consumption confidence are key to revitalizing consumption. From Shandong implementing plans to increase urban and rural residents' income and落实带薪错峰休假制度, to Jiangxi adjusting and optimizing the scope and subsidy standards for consumer goods trade-in policies, encouraging localities to issue consumption vouchers, to Hainan deeply carrying out special actions to boost consumption and optimize the consumption environment, and Guangdong clearing unreasonable restrictions in the consumption sector... In deploying work for the new year, regions are closely linking惠民measures with promoting consumption, introducing robust and practical measures aimed at breaking down bottlenecks hindering consumption, enabling people to consume, dare to consume, and be willing to consume.