Eight ministries and commissions make a push on Internet Plus, building a new ecosystem of the Internet of Everything
Recently, a photo circulating in internet industry circles showed Cheng Wei, CEO of Didi Kuaidi, shaking hands in Shanghai with Sun Jianping, director of the Shanghai Municipal Transport Commission. One is a “disruptor” of the traditional urban taxi platform, the other a regulator that once stood high above, and the two have gone through a period of adjustment and then moved on to cooperation.
Change is taking place in every field. Besides local governments embracing internet giants such as Baidu [Weibo], Alibaba and Tencent with the highest protocol, local internet companies have also received unprecedented favor from the government departments where they are located. Hujiang.com, headquartered in Shanghai, has welcomed several waves of official visits from both local and non-local officials this year.
At present, the national-level Internet Plus action plan is being led and formulated by the National Development and Reform Commission. Provinces that have clearly stated they will formulate Internet Plus action plans include Fujian, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Sichuan, Hunan and Henan, while even more provinces, represented by Fujian, Chongqing and Shanghai, have “married” internet companies.
Various ministries and commissions are also beating the drum for Internet Plus. A rough tally by a 21st Century Business Herald reporter shows that since the start of this year, 8 ministries and commissions have spoken out for Internet Plus, including the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Health and Family Planning Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Transport, the National Tourism Administration, the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Energy Administration and the Ministry of Commerce, among which the Ministry of Commerce has already issued the first action plan at the ministry level.
Eight ministries and commissions speak out on Internet Plus
On May 15, the Ministry of Commerce issued the “Internet Plus Circulation” Action Plan. This is the first special action plan to be implemented after Internet Plus was proposed in this year's government work report.
The Ministry of Commerce's Internet Plus action plan points at the e-commerce field and puts forward specific development targets: strive to achieve five major development goals within 1 to 2 years, including that by the end of 2016, China's e-commerce transaction volume will reach 22 trillion yuan and online retail sales will reach 5.5 trillion yuan. Compared with the 2014 data, in order to reach the targets, these two figures need to double by 2016.
“At present this action plan is still in the process of being refined. In general, it is about doing what the government should do. ‘Internet Plus’ is very hot right now. The Ministry of Commerce's ‘Internet Plus Circulation’ is about doing what government departments should do, not about replacing the role of the market.” said Shen Danyang, spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, noting that the action plan is meant to find every possible way to solve the two bottleneck problems of “Internet Plus Circulation.”
First, solve the “last kilometer” problem of e-commerce by actively developing e-commerce in small and medium-sized cities and rural areas; second, break the “last hundred meters” bottleneck of e-commerce, such as encouraging e-commerce to enter communities, promoting online-offline interaction, and innovating ways to serve people's livelihoods.
Huo Jianguo, president of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, believes that the Ministry of Commerce is responsible both for e-commerce and for the task of promoting consumption. Promoting the role of Internet Plus Circulation well is of great positive significance for improving circulation efficiency and boosting consumption.
In May, the National Tourism Administration, the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Health and Family Planning Commission and other ministries and commissions also spoke out for Internet Plus. On May 8, the National Tourism Administration issued the Several Opinions on Promoting the Integrated Development of Tourism and Informatization (draft for comments); on May 6, the Ministry of Agriculture held a national meeting in Zhejiang on advancing the pilot work of bringing information to villages and households, stressing that bringing information to villages and households should be built into a demonstration project for the “Internet Plus” action plan taking root in rural areas, with priority given to putting public welfare services online and advancing e-commerce into villages.
Xu Chengguang, deputy director of the Policy Research Office of the Ministry of Transport, also said publicly in April that at present, in accordance with the arrangements of the central and national authorities, the Ministry of Transport has joined the working group for compiling the “Internet Plus” action plan. This year the Ministry of Transport will focus on advancing the science and technology demonstration work of comprehensive transport travel information services under the government-enterprise cooperation model, orderly advancing the application demonstration work of the national Internet of Things in the transport field, and advocating the development of new models such as “Internet Plus Transport.”
On the part of the National Energy Administration, the Energy Internet action plan is led by the Department of Science, Technology and Equipment of the National Energy Administration, and preliminary research is currently being carried out.
“In fact, at the overall national level, the Internet Plus action plan is being handled by the National Development and Reform Commission. The NDRC has an Internet Plus plan at the macroeconomic level, and all departments must cooperate according to their own industries. In general, this is to respond to the call of the State Council,” Lu Feng, deputy director of the Internet Institute of the China Center for Information Industry Development under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told a 21st Century Business Herald reporter. At present, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is working with the National Development and Reform Commission to step up the compilation of relevant plans.
After this year's Government Work Report clearly stated the need to formulate an “Internet Plus” action plan, this task fell to the National Development and Reform Commission.
On March 19, the General Office of the National Development and Reform Commission issued a red-header urgent document to local development and reform commissions —— the Notice on Doing a Good Job in Formulating the “Internet Plus” Action Plan, requiring local development and reform commissions to earnestly implement the relevant work arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council and to fully recognize the “importance and urgency” of formulating this action plan.
The Notice formulates the “Internet Plus” action plan around the following four aspects: first, using the internet to promote industrial transformation and upgrading; second, using the internet to cultivate and develop new business forms and new models; third, using the internet to enhance public service capacity; fourth, accelerating the construction of network infrastructure.
The Notice requires localities to promptly establish project information databases and dynamically dispatch information. The NDRC will, in accordance with the principle of “launch one as soon as it is ready,” issue and organize the implementation of major “Internet Plus” project packages at the appropriate time.
A 21st Century Business Herald reporter learned from local development and reform commissions that what localities are currently doing in coordination is the statistical sorting of Internet Plus project information.
The Shaanxi Development and Reform Commission requires that relevant enterprises in provincial high-tech zones and elsewhere focus on the content requirements of the four aspects of the “Internet Plus” action plan formulated by the National Development and Reform Commission, sort out typical cases and successful experience, summarize development patterns and put forward policy recommendations. “The time for reporting projects to the National Development and Reform Commission has not yet been set,” said a local official in the development and reform system.