A visitor enjoys a water activity at a water sports center in Huangshan City, east China's Anhui Province, Aug. 28, 2025. (Photo/Xinhua)

Beijing - China seeks to further boost the sports industry with continued government support in terms of planning, construction and funding over the next five years, as it sees this burgeoning sector as a new driver for economic growth.

According to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planner, promoting the development of the sports industry and outdoor sports will feature in the nation's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) and other specific development plans.

The NDRC will also work with the General Administration of Sport of China to jointly formulate new development plans for the outdoor sports industry to ensure that policies supporting the sector's development are further improved, said Chen Jun, head of the NDRC's Department of Social Development, at a press conference held in Beijing on Tuesday.

By 2030, the nation aims to build around 100 high-quality outdoor sports destinations -- which will be equipped with comprehensive facilities that can provide high-quality services and host diverse sports events, Chen said, while adding that support will be given to regions with superior resource endowments and solid sectoral development to build world-class outdoor sports destinations.

"We will increase support by utilizing central government funding and other funds, such as the sports lottery public welfare funds, for qualified outdoor sports venues as well as related public service facilities," Chen said.

The government will also encourage financial institutions to increase credit support for outdoor sports business entities and attract more private capital to jointly develop the outdoor sports industry, she noted.

At present, sports venues in China have a total floor area of 4.23 billion square meters, and 1,547 new sports parks have been put into use, according to government data. These figures indicate China has achieved its goals for the sports industry that were outlined in the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) ahead of schedule, Chen said.

The official also noted that the market value of China's outdoor sports industry is expected to exceed 3 trillion yuan (about 422 billion U.S. dollars) by the end of 2025, citing predictions from research institutions.

"In recent years, China's sports industry has flourished, featuring expanding consumption, an upgrading structure and the rise of new business forms, which have become highlights driving economic growth," said Yang Xuedong, economic director at China's General Administration of Sport.

This sports consumption pattern also involves the rise of services consumption, with spending on event spectatorship, sports tourism, and fitness and leisure joining traditional consumption, which includes products such as clothing, shoes, hats and sports equipment, Yang observed.

In the first half of 2025, more than 500 surveyed sports events each boosted consumption by about 30 million yuan across different regions in China, Yang said.

Wang Weiming, an official of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said the integration of sports equipment and new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data and virtual reality is also spurring sports consumption, especially among the nation's young people. Wang believes the sports equipment sector has immense growth potential.

At present, there are over 63,000 sports equipment manufacturing enterprises in the country, and the output value of the sports equipment industry has risen from 1.12 trillion yuan in 2015 to over 1.5 trillion yuan today, an increase of 34 percent, Wang said.

The development of China's sports industry is providing market opportunities for global partners as well. Kong Dejun, director of services trade at the Ministry of Commerce, said that the China International Import Expo has created an exclusive zone for sports goods and events, focusing on the import of world-class products, technologies and services.

"The expo is providing an efficient channel for high-quality international sports consumption products and services to enter the Chinese market," Kong said at the press conference.