On September 17, the General Office of the State Council of China published an opinion piece aimed at promoting national fitness, increased sports consumption, and pushing the healthy growth of the sports industry in China.

The opinion piece points out that the sports industry plays an irreplaceable role in meeting people’s increasing demand for a better quality life. In order to realize the goal of making the sports industry a pillar of China’s national economy and carry out the national fitness program, the State Council of China published the opinion piece as a set of guidelines as follows.

Specifically, the opinion piece lists 10 guidelines and 35 tasks that cover all aspects of the sports industry.

● Reinforce the reform of regulation and services to unleash the growth potential of the sports industry.

● Improve industry policies and optimize growth environment.

● Encourage sports consumption to drive growth.

● Construct sports courts and facilities to satisfy increasing demand.

● Provide more support to grow sports market entities.

● Improve sports industry structure and variety of sporting products.

● Optimize the layout of the sports industry to nurture co-development.

● Integrate the sports industry with other industries, such as medical care, tourism and education.

● Strengthen demonstration projects and pilot areas.

● Solidify the foundation of the industry and improve services.

The opinion piece encourages sports events and training projects to be organized by market entities, and available natural resources (including water areas, forests, grassland, etc.) to open themselves to sports events. It also encourages more funding support to the sports industry and construction of new stadiums with talent development being another focus.

Reference: Chinese government

Proofread by Raymond Fitzpatrick