Taiyuan city, capital of North China's Shanxi province, is aiming to develop itself as one of the country's leading regional trade and retail centers and also become a dynamic growth springboard for the wider economy during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), according to a local official meeting on April 9. 

Taiyuan has set itself the goal of a 10 percent year-on-year increase in its total retail sales in 2021. 

According to the meeting, the city will focus on building itself up an international retailing hub. 

It will move to develop new areas of retail spending as well as excite night-time and holiday and green consumer expenditure. Plans are for it to stimulate urban and rural spending, in order to expand the domestic market's contribution to overall economic growth. 

Further plans are to optimize the distribution of commercial outlets, taking the Taiyuan Metro Line 2 as the central axis, with the main urban area of Taiyuan and the Taiyuan-Jinzhong co-construction area as the core. 

Gao Yicheng, director of Taiyuan bureau of commerce, told the meeting the city would promote the construction of large-scale commercial blocks, create high-level pedestrian commercial malls and promote the construction of nighttime commercial precincts. 

He said Taiyuan would advance the construction of its Grand Shopping City and Suning Plaza, promote the establishment of Tianmei Shanshan Outlets and accelerate the renovation of Zhonglou Pedestrian Street. 

In a bid to develop itself as the gourmet capital of North China, the city will speed up the construction of its catering sector, as well as encourage the development of fresh food processing plants and catering brands in local communities. 

In addition, it will support a number of e-commerce platforms and develop a number of e-commerce service providers by giving priority to livestreaming e-commerce, community e-commerce, online education and online medical care fields.