This aerial photo taken on June 12, 2023 shows a view of Shuanghu Village in Cixi City, east China's Zhejiang Province. Cixi City has been promoting rural revitalization for years. The living environment and life quality of locals have been significantly improved, and the ecological environment of rural areas has also been optimized. Photo: Xinhua

Nine Chinese government departments, including the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), on Monday jointly issued a three-year plan aiming to establish 500 or so leading counties nationwide with upgraded rural commercial systems while further optimizing and constructing logistics centers, commercial centers and convenience stores in villages by 2025. 

The plan aims to realize basic commercialization for 90 percent of counties, and all villages in qualified regions would have access to express delivery. The commercial mechanism will center on counties and townships, and be based on villages, to make supply chains and logistics more digitalized, connected and standardized, read the plan. 

The plan outlines 21 tasks, covering seven aspects such as improving the commercial infrastructure and network for counties and developing logistics in rural areas. It is to boost rural revitalization and consumption while better meeting local residents' demand.

In terms of boosting rural consumption, the key tasks will target sectors including the upgrading and transformation of county-level enterprises, enriching consumption categories for rural markets, boosting the development of rural e-commerce, and elevating the supply quality for agricultural products. 

The plan is starting in phases from July to December for deployment this year and it will be fully implemented in 2024. It will wrap up in the first 10 months of 2025.

A MOFCOM spokesperson said that the ministry and other government departments will guide financing while accelerating the remediation of shortcomings in rural commercial facilities and public services with other supportive measures, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

China has more than 2,800 county-level government organizations with a permanent population of 740 million, while the consumer market at the township and village levels accounts for 38 percent of the national consumer market, according to media reports. 

Chinese authorities are striving to boost domestic demand while stimulating rural consumption.

The National Development and Reform Commission - the nation's top economic planner, which also jointly issued the three-year plan - unveiled 20 measures in July to spur domestic spending, with four measures dedicated to boosting rural consumption. 

For instance, the measures include improving rural e-commerce and express delivery systems while expanding the sales channels for rural specialties and vigorously developing rural tourism. 

In 2022, rural online retail sales reached to 2.17 trillion yuan ($298.91 billion), up 3.6 percent year-on-year, Shu Jueting, a MOFCOM spokesperson, said in February, adding that the nation has constructed 983 county-level commercial centers and 506 county-level delivery centers. 

Global Times