Workers sort express packages at an e-commerce industrial park in Huai'an, East China's Jiangsu Province, on November 1, 2022. Jiangsu is expected to handle 1.23 billion express packages from November 1 to 16. The peak season for deliveries will last until the eve of the Spring Festival in January 2023, for a total of 82 days. Photo: VCG

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on Tuesday vowed to take measures to help rural e-commerce, including cultivating local brands and improving express delivery, as part of a three-year action plan to boost rural consumption. 

MOFCOM held a press conference on Tuesday to illustrate its three-year action plan for raising rural income and consumption, and supporting rural e-commerce will be a key factor.

MOFCOM will push high-quality development of rural e-commerce and integrate it as a vital part of local business, Li Gang, director-general of MOFCOM's department of circulation industry development, said at the press conference 

Li said the ministry will take new measures to help rural e-commerce, including cultivating local brands, improving express delivery, providing e-commerce services, and promoting business transformation.

Since 2014, the Chinese government has taken a series of measures to boost rural e-commerce, spending more than 20 billion yuan to support public services and express delivery services for rural areas. Also, more than 2,600 e-commerce public service centers and distribution centers have been built in 1,489 counties, and there are now over 150,000 rural e-commerce and express delivery service stations, Li said. 

The number of Chinese rural netizens exceeded 300 million by the end of 2022, offering a huge market for e-commerce.

From 2014 to 2022, online retail sales in Chinese rural areas increased from 180 billion yuan to 2.17 trillion yuan, an 11-fold increase. The online retail sales of agricultural products in China reached 531.38 billion yuan in 2022, three times more than in 2014. 

On Monday, nine Chinese government departments including MOFCOM publicized a three-year plan to strengthen county-level commerce systems, as an effort to rejuvenate the nation's rural regions. 

The plan outlines 21 tasks, covering seven aspects such as improving rural commercial networks and building logistics centers in rural areas, it also emphasizes the necessity of developing e-commerce in rural areas


At the end of 2022, the number of rural online merchants in China reached 17.3 million. As an emerging industry, e-commerce is changing the way of life in rural areas of China and bringing new development opportunities.

Global Times