Nationwide fitness plan to boost sports industry

Nearly 1,000 attendees practice yoga in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong province, on June 11, 2016, ahead of the International Yoga Day,which falls on June 21. [Photo/VCG]

The total scale of China's sports consumption will reach 1 trillion yuan by 2020, according to the State Council's new Nationwide Fitness Plan (2016-2020), cnstock.com reported on Thursday.

The plan also predicts that in four years, the nationwide fitness scheme will become a motivating factor to promote the sports industry, stimulating domestic demand and economic growth.

Specific plans were drafted, including speeding up the development of football and winter sports. Building football fields is part of the plan to urbanize and to construct a new countryside.

According to the plan, the goal is to build a sports facility network where people from cities to villages can access sport within 15 minutes. The public sports area is expected to reach 1.9 sq m per person, the report said.

The plan includes setting up a diversified fund raising mechanism in China to build sports facilities. The related expenses will be included in the budget for local government at or above the county level.

Under the plan, China will set up special investment funds for the construction of sports facilities and offer government purchase services, hoping to attract social investment in order to support consumer's fitness spending.