Ningbo recently unveiled an action plan to transform itself into an international consumption city.

According to the plan, by 2021, the city aims to increase total retail sales of consumer goods in the city to 530 billion yuan ($79.1 billion), an average annual growth of over eight percent.

The plan specifies 27 measures to boost consumption, touching on new energy vehicles, 5G, real estate and home appliances and comes in response to the nation's call to expand domestic consumption.

In 2014, consumption contributed over 50 percent of economic output in Ningbo for the first time, becoming the primary driving force behind local economic growth.

An official at Ningbo municipal bureau of commerce pointed out that foreign trade will play a significant role in promoting consumption upgrading among local residents, given that basic commodity consumption has almost been saturated in the city.

As a starting point of the ancient maritime silk road, Ningbo has long been a hub for international trade.

Ningbo's imports and exports reached 830.72 billion yuan from January to November, a yearly increase of 5.5 percent, according to statistics from local custom authorities.

The imports stood at 289.17 billion yuan while the exports were 541.55 billion yuan, accounting for 3.24 percent of the national total over the period.

The container throughput of Ningbo Zhoushan port, China's busiest port, surpassed 27 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) as of Dec 23 this year.

This year, the amount of imported consumer goods in Ningbo is expected to exceed 40 billion yuan, accounting for over three percent of the national total.

Meanwhile, the integrated development of Yangtze River Delta region, the nation's most economically developed city cluster, will bolster the city's consumption growth in light of the strong consumption power in the region.