Dalian founder vows to bring shoppers’ cash back home

Wang Jianlin, one of the richest men in China, has vowed to draw Chinese overseas spending back home, and he said he hopes local brands will attract more people to spend domestically.

“It is impossible to stop or halt overseas spending, but what we are trying to do is pull some of the consumption back, or it will hurt our economy,” Wang, owner of Dalian Wanda Group, said during the company’s annual commercial convention, which opened on Thursday.

According to Wang, overseas spending is growing faster than spending in the domestic market, even though the nation’s economy is in a downward phase. The scope of overseas spending is now expanding from luxury brands to daily necessities such as dairy products and medicine. Further, there are more Chinese spending money on overseas medical care and sports.

“The reasons for overseas spending are prices, safety and services. Some blame high domestic prices on high import tariffs, but it is the whole system that has caused the problem,” Wang noted. “However, we should have a clear understanding that the Chinese people are not rich enough to spend money overseas.”

Wang also noted that local brands should build up consumers’ confidence in their products and strive to crack down on fake and counterfeit products.

Wanda Group also opened the Ffan Commercial Expo on Thursday in Beijing.

Besides more than 300 domestic and overseas brands setting up exhibition booths, 140 Ffan Alliance members brought about 1,235 commercial projects to participate in the expo for tender- invitation for the first time.

About 8,000 famous brands and more than 3,000 national and regional agents will attend the expo, making it the open industry event with the largest commercial entity scale and the largest number of participating projects.