The year 2015 may mark explosive growth for the child car safety seat market in China. According to a report appearing in the National Business Daily today, Beijing’s policy draft for car safety seats has already been completed, and has been sent to the National People’s Congress for deliberation. The drafts are likely to be discussed at the Congress’ two meetings next year, which means they may be released by the end of the year. If everything goes smoothly, the legislation will come into effect by 2016.
Earlier this month, the Ministry of Public Security’s Road Traffic Safety Research Center and China Automotive Technology and Research Center hosted the 2014 International Forum on Chinese Automotive Safety Technology Development. Shang Wei, director of the Road Traffic Safety Research Center, emphasized that the biggest thing child safety seats are lacking in the country is proper legislative backing.
Currently 96 countries and regions around the world have strict legislation mandating the use of safety seats for children. However, statistics show that child safety seat use in China is a stunning 3 percent. China Automotive Meng Yanxiang, deputy head of the Automotive Technology Reporting Department of the China Automotive Technology and Research Center, believes that this rate will increase dramatically after proper legislation is introduced, which in turn will help decrease automobile fatality and injury rates.
At the first national summit for child safety seat awareness, held just days before the International Forum on Chinese Automotive Safety Technology Development, Liu Shi, deputy dean of the Beijing Police Academy, explained that automobile crashes are one of the major causes of child deaths.
On a positive note, sales of child car seats are in an upward trend. According to an expert, Taobao sales of the top 50 best-selling child car seats on Singles’ Day, a traditionally popular shopping day in China, reached an astounding 97 million units. Those figures are expected to grow even more after actual legislation comes into place. The expert states that “this is a rapidly growing market that desperately needs legislation and uniform standards”, pointing out that over half of the seats available on market do not meet proper safety standards. The importance of better enforced standards has been echoed by many other authoritative figures in the industry.
