China unveils measures to boost domestic services sector

A staff member chats with senior citizens at the No.1 Elderly Care Center of Binhai New Area in Tianjin, north China, April 23, 2026. (Xinhua/Li Ran)

BEIJING, July 20 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Commerce and eight other government departments on Monday issued 19 policy measures to promote high-quality development of the domestic services sector, boost domestic service consumption, and remove bottlenecks hindering the sector's development.

These measures focus on five areas: increasing support for domestic service enterprises, encouraging institutional innovation, strengthening vocational skills training, improving the credit information platform system, and reinforcing the foundations for industry development.

They encourage insurers to develop products tailored to the sector, support domestic service enterprises in participating in the long-term care service system, and improve social insurance coverage among domestic service workers in flexible employment.

The measures also support qualified localities in exploring ways, in accordance with the law, to better protect workers' rights and interests, formulating employment guidelines for domestic service enterprises, and issuing standardized service agreements. They also call for updating relevant national occupational standards and improving vocational skill-level assessments.

In addition, the measures urge stronger credit verification and information sharing, improved model contracts and industry standards, service quality evaluations, and tighter price supervision.

Earlier this month, China released a five-year plan to expand consumption, which calls for increasing the supply of high-quality domestic services, upgrading workers' skills, strengthening the service standards system, and fostering leading enterprises and well-known brands in the sector.

A national plan on implementing the employment-first strategy for the 2026-2030 period, released in June, also called for expanding and upgrading domestic services, improving urban and rural eldercare and childcare service networks, and increasing employment in these fields.