On January 8, the State Council Information Office held a routine policy briefing, where responsible officials from the National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce, People's Bank of China, and State Administration for Market Regulation introduced the situation regarding the implementation of the "Two New" policies.

Support the replacement of old consumer goods with new ones.

The National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance stated that subsidies will be implemented for the purchase of new digital products such as mobile phones. Personal consumers purchasing three types of digital products (single sales price not exceeding 6,000 yuan) like mobile phones, tablets, smartwatches, and wristbands will receive a subsidy of 15% based on the product sale price. Each consumer can receive a subsidy for one item per product type, with a maximum subsidy of 500 yuan per item.

In addition to digital products, the state will continue to support the replacement of old home appliances, such as refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, air conditioners, computers, water heaters, home cooking appliances, and cooker hoods, and will include microwaves, water purifiers, dishwashers, and Rice Cookers in the subsidy scope. Personal consumers purchasing products from these 12 categories of home appliances that meet level 2 energy efficiency or water efficiency standards will receive a subsidy standard of 15% of the product sale price; for products meeting level 1 energy efficiency or water efficiency standards, the subsidy standard will be 20% of the product sale price. Each consumer can receive a subsidy for one item per product type (up to three items for air conditioners), with a maximum subsidy of 2,000 yuan per item. Consumers who have enjoyed the subsidy for certain home appliances in 2024 can continue to enjoy subsidies when purchasing similar home appliances in 2025.

The Ministry of Commerce stated that support will be given to eligible products of different brands and models such as mobile phones to participate in the subsidy for replacing old appliances. Adhering to the principles of convenience, fairness, and safety, the goal is to make the operation simple and quick, while ensuring the safety of funds, and to minimize the operational steps for consumers as much as possible. Fairness and justice are to be upheld, and support will be provided for eligible products of different brands and models to participate in the subsidy, regardless of whether they are domestic or foreign enterprises, state-owned or private enterprises, large enterprises or small and medium-sized enterprises, and whether they are online platforms or offline entities.

At the same time, in 2025, China will expand the scope of support for scrapping and updating vehicles. Personal consumers scrapping passenger vehicles registered before June 30, 2012 (including that day) that run on RBOB Gasoline, as well as diesel and other fuel passenger vehicles registered before June 30, 2014, or new energy passenger vehicles registered before December 31, 2018, and who purchase new energy passenger vehicles included in the "Catalog of New Energy Vehicles Exempted from Vehicle Purchase Tax" or RBOB Gasoline passenger vehicles with displacement of 2.0 liters or less, will receive a subsidy of 0.02 million yuan for each new energy passenger vehicle purchased and a subsidy of 0.015 million yuan for each RBOB Gasoline passenger vehicle purchased with displacement of 2.0 liters or less.

The Director of the Economic Construction Department of the Ministry of Finance, Fu Jinling, stated that the central government has recently allocated 81 billion yuan for the 2025 subsidies for replacing old consumer goods, supporting local governments in continuing to implement the policies.

Fu Jinling also stated that preliminary Statistics show that by the end of 2024, the 150 billion yuan of central finance allocated for replacing old consumer goods has basically been used up, according to the audited amounts. Some localities, after exhausting the central fund quota, actively increased local funding for support. Meanwhile, the 150 billion yuan for large-scale equipment updates in 2024 has been allocated according to projects. The Ministry of Finance has fully distributed the funds to local levels and specified them for particular projects.

The total scale of special long-term national bonds supporting "Two New" will significantly increase.

Zhao Chenxin, Deputy Director of the National Development and Reform Commission, stated that in 2025, the total scale of special long-term national bonds used to support "Two New" will increase substantially compared to last year, and the specific amount will be announced during this year's national two sessions.

In 2025, China will strengthen support for key field equipment update projects. The funding scale of special long-term national bonds supporting key field equipment updates will be increased. In addition to continuing to support updates of industrial, energy-using equipment, electrical utilities, Transportation, Logistics, environmental infrastructure, Education, cultural tourism, Medical, old elevators, etc., the support scope will further expand to include electronic information, safety production, facility agriculture, and other fields, focusing on high-end, intelligent, and green equipment applications. Encourage capable localities to deploy and implement equipment updates on a large scale using industrial parks and industry clusters as carriers.

Relevant personnel from the National Development and Reform Commission introduced that the investment growth effect driven by the "Two New" policy is significant. In 2024, among more than 4,600 equipment update projects supported by special long-term national bonds, the update quantity of industrial, energy-using, electrical utilities, and Transportation equipment exceeded 2 million units (sets). Preliminary estimates indicate that under the comprehensive drive of the "Two New" policy, the total number of equipment updates in key fields across the country could exceed 20 million units (sets), strongly promoting investments in related equipment and tools.

Since the implementation of the "Two New" policy in 2024, sales of Autos and home appliance consumer goods have been favorable. In the old-for-new replacement of Autos, the proportion of purchasing new energy vehicles exceeds 60%; in the old-for-new replacement of home appliances, the sales of first-level energy consumption products account for over 90%; in the renovation of kitchen and bathroom home appliances, the replacement of smart toilets, robotic vacuum cleaners, smart door locks, and other Smart Home products has exceeded 10 million pieces.

Editor/Jeffy