(Yicai) Sept. 3 -- China plans to unlock the potential of sports consumption and hasten the industry’s development over the next five years, with the aim of expanding the sector's total output to more than CNY7 trillion (USD1.04 trillion) by 2030.

The country plans to achieve this largely by making sporting events easier to stage and more attractive to spectators, while creating a series of premium homegrown sports events to convert event-driven traffic into economic growth, Gao Zhidan, director of the General Administration of Sport, said at a press conference today.

It will also promote the diversified development of the fitness and leisure sector, refine the industrial chain for competitive sports events, and develop a range of trendy, high-tech domestic sporting goods, Gao noted.

China’s sports sector was worth CNY3.84 trillion (USD571.5 billion) in 2024, according to the latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics.

The authorities will pool resources to make breakthroughs in core technologies, covering high-performance competition gear, smart wearable devices, and smart venue systems, to address the fact that China’s sports equipment sector is large yet not strong and suffers from bottlenecks in core components, said Yang Xuedong, director general of the GASC’s Sports Economic Department.

Efforts will also be made to hasten commercialization of sports technology innovations and nurture home-grown sports manufacturing brands with global competitiveness, Yang noted, adding that the authorities will prioritize making sporting events easier to host and more appealing to watch so as to further grow the event-driven economy.

Making events easier to stage will mainly involve streamlining approval procedures and lowering the barriers and costs for organizers, while making them more compelling viewing will necessitate making the audience experience better and increasing the number of high-quality events, Yang explained.

China will seek to capitalize on leverage and the multiplier effects of sporting occasions to drive coordinated growth across the entire competition and events industry chain and other related sectors, including catering, accommodation, transportation, tourism, shopping, and entertainment, Yang noted.

Moreover, the authorities plan to develop an event-economy ecosystem centered on home-grown intellectual property, according to Yang.

The Chinese sports industry should seize the opportunities presented by the latest wave of technological revolution and industrial transformation, as innovative digital technologies will create new models and scenarios for sports consumption, shifting sports services from standardized offerings to personalized solutions, Yang said.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione