General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that "accelerating product updates and replacements is an important measure to promote high-quality development, and we should encourage and guide a new round of large-scale equipment updates and consumer goods trade in." The Central Economic Work Conference held at the end of last year proposed to increase the issuance of ultra long term special government bonds and continue to support the implementation of "dual" projects and "dual new" policies. In January of this year, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Implementation of Large scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade in Policies by 2025" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), requiring "strengthening the promotion of equipment renewal" and "expanding the support for consumer goods trade in". From last year's "promotion of large-scale equipment updates and trade in of consumer goods" to later "intensified promotion" and "expansion support", the "two new" policies have continued to be effective. How is the progress of the "two new" work and the effectiveness of policies? What are the new highlights of 'strengthening and expanding' and what role will it play? The reporter interviewed relevant departments and experts and scholars. How is the progress of the "two new" work? In 2024, over 6.6 million old cars will be upgraded to new energy vehicles or energy-saving vehicles, and the total number of equipment updates in key areas will reach more than 20 million units (sets). At the beginning of the new year, a home appliance store in Chaoyang District, Beijing was crowded with people. I just wanted to take a stroll, but seeing such favorable policies, I decided to replace all my old appliances Li Lihua, a citizen who has booked all the household appliances, calculated her expenses: a large capacity smart refrigerator, a washing and drying set, an 85 inch TV, and three 1.5-horsepower first level energy-efficient air conditioners. With government subsidies and store subsidies, all the appliances were discounted by a total of 13449 yuan. Since the implementation of the trade in policy in March last year, sales of consumer goods in areas such as automobiles and home appliances have improved. Statistics show that the retail sales of passenger cars for the whole year of 2024 reached 22.894 million units, a year-on-year increase of 5.5%; The retail sales of household appliances and audio-visual equipment by units above the quota reached 1.0307 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.3%. In addition to boosting consumption growth, trade in has also promoted industrial upgrading and green transformation. Li Gang, Director of the Market Operation and Consumption Promotion Department of the Ministry of Commerce, presented a set of data: in the process of exchanging old cars for new ones, the proportion of new energy vehicles purchased exceeds 60%, and over 6.6 million old cars have been upgraded to new energy vehicles or energy-saving vehicles; In the process of exchanging old appliances for new ones, the sales of first level energy-efficient products account for over 90%, driving the retail sales of high energy efficiency grades and smart appliances to exceed double digits for four consecutive months; Home decoration kitchens and bathrooms are being exchanged for new ones, with the replacement of 10 million smart home products such as smart toilets, robotic vacuum cleaners, and smart door locks; Over one million old electric bicycles have been upgraded to safer lead-acid battery powered vehicles. High tech and high-efficiency products are highly favored, driving the high-end, intelligent, and green transformation of related industries, "said Li Gang. The equipment update policy is also widely welcomed by enterprises. In Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province, the digital transformation of Shanqi Clothing Company has entered the final stage. "In October 2024, the digital transformation project we applied for was approved to have a super long term special treasury bond fund of 3.17 million yuan, all of which was allocated in time. With the help of this fund, the company eliminated 26 old equipment, updated 64 equipment, and added 66 equipment. After putting into use, the total benefit could be saved by 30 million yuan." Liu Daiwei, the company's financial director, said. "In 2024, among more than 4600 equipment renewal projects supported by extra long term special treasury bond funds alone, the number of industrial, energy, power, transportation and other equipment will be more than 2 million units (sets)." Zhao Chenxin, Deputy Director of the National Development and Reform Commission, stated that preliminary estimates suggest that under the impetus of the "two new" policies, the total number of equipment updates in key areas across the country could reach over 20 million units (sets). The investment in the purchase of equipment and tools has been strongly stimulated: in 2024, it increased by 15.7% year-on-year, accelerating by 9.1 percentage points compared to the previous year, and driving the total investment growth by 2.2 percentage points. The two actions of recycling and standard improvement are also progressing smoothly. In 2024, the number of newly added intelligent community waste material recycling facilities in China reached more than 11000, and the number of scrapped motor vehicles recycled nationwide reached 8.46 million, a year-on-year increase of 64%. According to data from key enterprises contacted by the Ministry of Commerce, the amount of recycled waste household appliances has achieved year-on-year growth for five consecutive months since July. As of the end of 2024, 168 important national standards for the "two new" fields such as home appliances, furniture, automobiles, and civilian drones have been successively released. How effective are the "two new" policies? Stabilizing investment, promoting consumption, assisting transformation, and benefiting people's livelihoods are not only conducive to promoting current economic growth, but also to consolidating the foundation and nurturing the economy in the medium and long term. "The four obvious effects of stimulating consumption vitality, driving investment growth, promoting industrial upgrading, and supporting green transformation fully demonstrate the important role of the implementation of the 'two new' policies in expanding effective investment, boosting consumer demand, promoting green transformation, and improving social livelihoods," said Zhao Chenxin. Many respondents believe that the "two new" policies are not only beneficial for promoting current economic growth, but also for consolidating the foundation and nurturing the economy in the medium and long term. They are a good policy that benefits both the present and the long term. ——Targeted and precise measures will be taken to support the economic recovery and improvement. Better unleashing residents' consumption demand. In recent years, people's new demand for high-quality life has been continuously increasing, bringing about significant consumption growth. At the same time, it has been more than 10 years since the last round of promoting the exchange of old for new consumer goods nationwide, and many consumer goods have exceeded their service life, leading to a concentrated release of demand for updates. According to estimates, the annual demand for automobile and home appliance replacement in China is in the trillion yuan range. "Jiang Zhao, associate researcher at the Circulation and Consumption Institute of the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, believes that the exchange of old for new policy, based on respecting consumer wishes, guides people to replace consumer goods with more complete functions and better quality," which not only meets residents' aspirations for a better life, but also stimulates their consumption potential and expands the space for consumption growth. "This policy has better stimulated the investment willingness of enterprises. "At present, China's industrial sector has great potential for renewal. For example, petrochemical, chemical, shipbuilding and other industries still have a batch of old equipment that has been out of service for a long time. A large number of motors, transformers and boilers used by industrial enterprises have not reached the advanced energy efficiency level. However, some enterprises lack endogenous power for renewal and transformation due to difficulties in production and operation." Li Yang, deputy director of the Planning Institute of CCID Research Institute, believes that the equipment renewal policy has effectively solved this problem. "For example, the formulation and issuance of the Guidelines for Equipment Renewal and Technological Transformation in Key Industrial Sectors has provided important reference for local, enterprises and financial institutions; for example, the implementation of tax incentives, financial support, financial support and standard support to help enterprises solve capital problems and reduce the number of problems. Concerns." - Coordinating supply and demand and implementing systematic policies, Promote industrial transformation and upgrading. On the one hand, supporting enterprises to enhance their product iteration and upgrading capabilities through 'updates' and better meet consumer demands; On the one hand, we support residents to increase consumption and drive enterprise investment and production expansion through 'upgrading' Li Chao, spokesperson for the National Development and Reform Commission, believes that the "two new" policies have worked together from both the supply and demand sides, promoting the formation of a virtuous cycle of mutual promotion between investment and consumption. In Li Yang's view, an important reason why the "Two New" policy is pragmatic and effective is that it has identified the combination of expanding domestic demand and deepening supply side structural reform. "It is based on China's unique advantages at both the supply and demand ends, and targets the bottlenecks in the economic cycle, seizing the key link to promote economic recovery and improvement." How has the "Two New" policy achieved significant results? Strengthen overall planning and linkage between the central and local governments, and give full play to the initiative of both the central and local governments; Why can the "two new" policies achieve significant results as a macro policy that seeks truth, pragmatism, gradual progress, and timely and moderate optimization and adjustment of policies? ——Strengthen overall planning and linkage between the central and local governments, and give full play to the initiative of both the central and local governments. After the issuance of the "Action Plan for Promoting Large scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade in" in March 2024, the National Development and Reform Commission took the lead in establishing the "Two New" inter ministerial joint conference mechanism. Subsequently, the Ministry of Commerce took the lead in formulating the document on exchanging old for new consumer goods. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development, the Ministry of Transport and other departments respectively took the lead in formulating equipment renewal plans for industrial, construction and municipal, transportation and other fields. The State Administration for Market Regulation took the lead in formulating action plans to improve standards... With the joint efforts of relevant departments, the "two new" policy system was quickly established. In July 2024, after the issuance of the "Several Measures to Strengthen Support for Large scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade in" (hereinafter referred to as the "Several Measures"), the National Development and Reform Commission fully utilized the inter ministerial joint meeting mechanism to promote and implement it. As of mid November 2024, nearly 300 implementation rules have been promoted in various aspects. The top-level design is becoming increasingly perfect, and local exploration is also actively promoted. Shanghai, Guangdong and other places will include dryers, floor sweepers, etc. in the subsidy scope; Jiangsu, Chongqing and other places have adopted a direct reduction model to distribute subsidies for household appliances, making it convenient for consumers to enjoy discounts in real time; Beijing has set a floating upper limit for commodity registration prices based on the average sales price of the past two months, to prevent "price increases before subsidies"... On the basis of implementing national unified policies, various regions have exercised their autonomy and creativity in combination with reality to promote better policy implementation. ——Seek truth from facts, proceed gradually, and optimize and adjust policies in a timely and moderate manner. Many respondents believe that the "two new" policies clearly reflect the characteristics of seeking truth, pragmatism, and gradual progress. For example, the "Several Measures for Strengthening Support" have made three adjustments based on previous policies. One is to significantly expand the scope of support. In terms of equipment renewal, the scope of ultra long term special treasury bond support will be extended to energy, power, old elevators and other fields. In terms of trade in, personal consumer passenger cars will be replaced and updated, and the purchase of materials for old house decoration, kitchen and bathroom renovation will be included in the scope of support. The second is to significantly optimize the organizational structure. In terms of equipment updates, considering the characteristics of different projects, lowering the application threshold, and supporting small-scale but large-scale, large-scale, and wide-ranging renovation projects. Previously, some companies with the intention of updating their equipment were unable to update their devices in a timely manner due to issues such as not meeting the application threshold. The "Several Measures" have addressed this issue by canceling the requirement of "total project investment of over 100 million yuan" and optimizing the conditions for project application, allowing support policies to benefit more small and medium-sized enterprises. In the aspect of trade in, about 150 billion yuan of ultra long term special treasury bond funds were allocated to local governments to support local governments to independently implement the trade in of consumer goods. Unlike traditional support methods such as investment subsidies, directly allocating funds to local governments can give them greater autonomy, unleash local creativity while meeting overall requirements, and enable real money discounts to reach consumers faster, "said Zhao Chenxin. The third is to significantly increase the subsidy standards. For example, the subsidy standards for scrapping and updating automobiles have been increased from the previous subsidy of 10000 yuan for purchasing new energy passenger vehicles and 7000 yuan for purchasing fuel passenger vehicles to 20000 yuan and 15000 yuan, respectively. It is commendable that policy makers pay great attention to "looking ahead and looking back" and tracing back to the past. The Measures propose that from April 24, 2024, consumers who submit eligible subsidy applications shall be subject to the adjusted subsidy standards; For consumers who have already received subsidies, make up the difference in subsidies. With strong efforts, practical measures, and strong timeliness, the "Several Measures" have achieved greater results in promoting the "two new" initiatives. A set of data can prove that in August 2024, the sales of household appliances and audio-visual equipment in China rapidly changed from a year-on-year decrease of 2.4% in the previous month to a year-on-year increase of 3.4%. Afterwards, it continued to maintain a high-speed growth trend