Rural e-commerce development still requires careful planning before action

In February 2015, Alibaba designated Binchuan County in Dali Prefecture as Yunnan's first pilot county for the "Thousand Counties, Ten Thousand Villages" project, in order to carry out the two-way circulation of rural Taobao's "online goods to the countryside (downward)" and "agricultural products to the city (upward)" work. However, according to sales data, in 2015 Binchuan County's downward sales amounted to 200 million yuan, while upward sales were only just over 50 million yuan, resulting in a huge deficit between upward and downward flows (Xinhua Net, October 19)

By grafting various resources serving rural areas onto internet e-commerce platforms, "rural e-commerce" plays a very positive role in promoting the development of our country's rural economy and society and in changing the lives of hundreds of millions of farmers. Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council once pointed out: "We must improve the compensation mechanism for universal broadband telecommunications services in rural and remote areas, and narrow the urban-rural digital divide. We must deploy efforts to accelerate the development of rural e-commerce, and promote consumption and benefit people's livelihoods by expanding new business formats." Under the wave of "Internet Plus," rural e-commerce has developed rapidly, with localities across the country "going online" one after another, striving to push local specialty products onto the internet, so as to achieve the goal of promoting rural economic development and increasing farmers' incomes.

However, in some places, especially at the county level, local governments single-mindedly pursue the development of "rural e-commerce" as local political achievement, resulting in e-commerce projects that do not accord with the actual conditions of local economic and social development, and in certain places blind e-commerce projects have drawn criticism from the people. In reality, rural e-commerce service platforms have a rigorous set of operating mechanisms; by digital and informatized means, through intensive management, market-based operation, and systematic cross-regional and cross-industry collaboration, they form a compact and orderly business consortium. In addition, the market attention of specialty agricultural products, the educational level of practitioners, internet coverage rates, logistics distribution, and transportation infrastructure all constrain the development of "rural e-commerce."

In the case of Binchuan County, the huge deficit between upward and downward sales has its own particular reasons. Binchuan County is a nationally designated poverty-stricken county, located on the edge of the Yunling Hengduan Mountains and in the southwestern part of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau; it is a typical mountainous county, and its transportation infrastructure is relatively poor. In addition, most agricultural specialty products are fresh products, and high logistics costs are the biggest obstacle constraining the county's development of "rural e-commerce." The county's information network infrastructure construction is also relatively lagging, and the county's wireless WiFi and optical fiber coverage have not reached 100%. The shortage of local e-commerce talent is also a weak point in the county's development of "rural e-commerce." Moreover, in the operation of existing e-commerce projects, dishonest phenomena such as passing off inferior goods as good ones and giving short weight have also occurred from time to time. In reality, Binchuan County's predicament is not a "unique" problem; most places, to a greater or lesser extent, face the same problems in developing "rural e-commerce."

Developing "rural e-commerce" cannot be achieved overnight; it must accord with the actual conditions of the region and be carried out step by step. Local governments must also establish a correct view of political achievement; e-commerce projects must not blindly pursue quantity, and the key is to emphasize quality, so as to achieve the fundamental purpose of promoting rural economic development and increasing rural incomes. Doing everything possible to develop the real economy is the primary task of local governments, using strong economic strength to strengthen transportation infrastructure construction, so as to break through the biggest obstacle constraining rural e-commerce development. Second, it is necessary to strengthen the popularization of rural broadband telecommunications, strengthen publicity, guidance, and the construction of a credit system, and strengthen rural people's awareness of "getting online" and their awareness of honesty and law-abiding. In addition, it is necessary to actively cultivate local e-commerce talent, ensuring that the development of "rural e-commerce" has sustainable talent support.

"Rural e-commerce" is a new engine for rural economic development. Developing "rural e-commerce" is a new topic and also a difficult one. How to make good use of this "engine" so that rural areas benefit and farmers increase their incomes still requires local governments to proceed from their own actual conditions and plan carefully before acting.