Central government allocates 2 billion yuan in financial support for rural e-commerce drive
In 2015, the central government plans to allocate 2 billion yuan in special funds to support the development of rural e-commerce in the central and western regions, especially in the old revolutionary base areas, with the use of the funds focused on building a three-tier logistics distribution system at the county, township and village levels. This is the latest news the reporter obtained from the National Rural E-commerce On-site Meeting held from the 13th to the 14th in Suichang, Zhejiang.
Wu Xiangyun, director of the Commerce Division of the Economic Construction Department of the Ministry of Finance, said in her speech on the 14th that, in order to raise the level of rural e-commerce and let e-commerce benefit the broader central and western regions and more rural residents, especially rural residents in the old revolutionary base areas, the Ministry of Finance will support, on a selective basis, 200 counties in central and western provinces and the old revolutionary base areas in carrying out comprehensive rural e-commerce demonstrations, allocating 10 million yuan to each county, and will support demonstration counties that pass assessment for one more year in 2016. According to her, compared with 2014, this year's pilot counties increased by 144, and the intensity of financial support increased by 80%, in the hope that the guidance and encouragement of fiscal funds will bring more enterprises and social capital into rural e-commerce development and foster a rural e-commerce ecosystem.
It is learned that the special funds will be regulated for use in the following three areas: first, establishing a sound three-tier logistics distribution system at the county, township and village levels; second, supporting the construction and renovation of county-level e-commerce public service centers and village-level e-commerce service stations, the brand cultivation and quality assurance system construction for agricultural products and rural specialty products for the purpose of developing rural e-commerce, and the construction of facilities for the standardization, grading and packaging, primary processing and distribution of agricultural products; third, supporting rural e-commerce training. Of these, the first item is the key focus of the special funds.
In addition, Wu Xiangyun specifically stressed that central government financial funds must not be used for the construction of online platforms or for expenditures such as purchasing traffic; in case of violation, the qualification of the comprehensive demonstration county will be canceled and the financial funds will be recovered. She said she hopes demonstration counties will use existing already-commercialized e-commerce platforms, maximize the use of social resources, and avoid duplicate construction and waste of resources.
In this regard, Yang Qian, president of the Beijing Vocational College of Commerce Management, analyzed and pointed out that in many places the development of e-commerce is not entirely a matter of funding, but a matter of mindset. The development of rural e-commerce does not depend entirely on local governments having no money or local areas having no market, but on private capital not seeing that local governments attach importance to it. If, through some support policies, e-commerce can be developed in backward and impoverished areas, the central and eastern regions will also see the possibility of such local support. Therefore, an important change in this year's financial support is that it is especially tilted toward impoverished counties, the central and western regions and the old revolutionary base areas, so the demonstration effect will be stronger. This is also why the two ministries and commissions made the adjustment this year to select pilot sites only in the central and western regions.
Another noteworthy point is that this year's special funds for supporting rural e-commerce specially regulated the scope of use and the projects that are resolutely restricted, whereas last year there were no clear requirements in this regard.
Yang Qian said that if funds cannot be used for platform construction, it will not only fail to produce benefits, but also cause government and business to become indistinguishable. In addition, buying traffic is purely using subsidies for commercial benefits, which goes against the meaning of government financial subsidies. What the government is suitable to subsidize are public issues such as solving the last-mile logistics problem, solving facility construction problems and training problems.
The Ministry of Finance also specifically required this time that duplicate construction and waste of resources be avoided. In this regard, Yang Qian said that at present many departments and systems support e-commerce, and there once appeared the problem of one entity applying to multiple sources, and obtaining subsidies from multiple departments amounts to reducing the leverage effect of financial funds. The responsible body for avoiding waste of resources lies with the county government, which should consider the use of various financial funds in an overall way.