Original title: Building a high-quality rural e-commerce ecosystem
The Ministry of Commerce and other nine departments recently jointly issued the Implementation Opinions on Promoting the High Quality Development of Rural E-commerce (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions), setting a five-year goal for high-quality development of rural e-commerce, and promoting rural e-commerce to achieve digital transformation and upgrading. The Opinions came into being at the right time and played an important role in accelerating the high-quality development of rural e-commerce in China.
By the end of 2023, the total number of rural broadband users in China had reached 192 million, with a net increase of 15.57 million in the whole year, 8.8% higher than that of the previous year, 1.3 percentage points higher than that of urban broadband users. At the same time, China has basically established a three-level e-commerce service system and a logistics distribution system in counties and villages. The "digital divide" between urban and rural areas has been narrowing, providing favorable opportunities for the vigorous development of rural e-commerce.
Thanks to the popularity of Internet technology and the improvement of logistics system, agricultural products can be sold across the country through e-commerce platforms. In 2023, China's rural online retail sales will reach 2.49 trillion yuan. Rural e-commerce has broadened the circulation channels, increased farmers' income, promoted the transformation and upgrading of rural industries, promoted the sustainable development of rural economy, and is becoming an important force to promote rural economic development and rural revitalization.
However, there are also imbalance problems in the rapid development of rural e-commerce, such as the relatively backward network, transportation and other infrastructure in some rural areas, the shortage of e-commerce talents, the unstable quality and low standardization of some agricultural products, and the logistics and distribution system of agricultural products also needs to be further improved.
The Opinions issued this time put forward 14 specific measures from 6 aspects. It will take five years to cultivate about 100 rural e-commerce "leading counties", about 1000 county level digital circulation leading enterprises, about 1000 county level live broadcast e-commerce bases, and about 10000 rural e-commerce leaders in the country, so that rural online retail sales The annual growth rate of online retail sales of agricultural products is higher than the growth rate of retail sales of rural consumer goods nationwide in the same period. The number of rural online merchants (stores) has steadily increased. The quality of rural digital consumption has been improved and upgraded. Significant achievements have been made in helping agricultural products go up and farmers increase their income. A rural e-commerce service system with complete facilities, active subjects, smooth circulation and efficient services has basically been built, Provide strong support for rural revitalization.
According to the requirements of the Opinions, building a coordinated, innovative and efficient rural e-commerce ecosystem is of great significance to smooth the economic cycle between urban and rural areas, and promote farmers' income and rural consumption. Therefore, it is necessary to actively explore e-commerce models suitable for rural areas and accelerate the high-quality development of rural e-commerce.
On the one hand, constantly improve infrastructure construction. Increase financial investment, improve the level of rural network, transportation and other infrastructure, and continue to provide a good hardware environment for the development of rural e-commerce. On the other hand, strengthen the training of rural e-commerce talents, improve farmers' e-commerce knowledge and skills, and cultivate a team of rural e-commerce talents with professional quality. At the same time, we should strengthen the quality supervision of agricultural products, promote standardized production of agricultural products, and improve the quality stability and market competitiveness of agricultural products. In addition, we should continue to promote the construction of agricultural product logistics distribution system, optimize the logistics distribution network, reduce distribution costs, and improve circulation efficiency.
Promoting the high-quality development of rural e-commerce requires joint efforts. All parties should strengthen policy support and departmental coordination, improve the quality of rural e-commerce public service supply, smooth the urban and rural economic cycle, and provide strong support for rural revitalization.
