Two departments: vigorously developing tax refund upon departure and optimizing foreign payment services.

On September 30, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Commerce issued a notice on the construction of an internationalized consumer environment. The notice mentions that around the construction of an internationalized consumer environment, the focus is on themes such as intellectual property (IP), digital, green, intelligent, cultural tourism, sports, national trend, etc. It supports the transformation and upgrading of key commercial areas, innovates the integration of multi-faceted consumption scenes with international popularity and influence in business, travel, culture, and sports. It aims to create international consumer gathering areas, inbound consumer-friendly commercial circles, and landmark consumer projects. It also supports the cultivation of a number of local brands that are fashion-forward and have international influence. Efforts will be made to develop duty-free shopping, support the increase of duty-free shops, enrich duty-free products, and optimize duty-free services. In addition, it aims to optimize foreign-related payment services. It will improve the multi-layered and diversified payment service system, enhance the environment for the use of foreign bank cards, increase the coverage of POS machines for foreign cards in key places such as commercial areas, tourist attractions, tourist leisure districts, hotels, restaurants, airports, and train stations for foreigners, and support merchants in installing or upgrading POS machines for foreign cards. It will also optimize the environment for cash use, support the establishment of foreign currency exchange points, foreign currency exchange machines, and multiple currency exchange services in key places for foreigners. Efforts will be made to promote cash reserves for merchants, ensuring full coverage in retail, dining, cultural tourism, transportation, and other scenarios. Furthermore, it will strengthen fund supervision. Provincial departments of commerce and finance are required to jointly establish a daily supervision mechanism with pilot cities to form closed-loop management, fully leverage the guiding role of central fiscal funds, leverage social capital, and jointly promote pilot projects. Pilot cities are required to strengthen the coordination of project funding with central infrastructure investment and other central fiscal special funds to avoid duplication. Subsidies should not be used for new or expanded infrastructure, fines, sponsorship, debt repayment, or personnel and operating expenses of finance subsidy unit, among others. Misappropriation of funds will not be allowed. The original text is from the Ministry of Finance website, GMTEight, edited by Liu Jiayin.