The E-commerce in Rural Areas Comprehensive Demonstration in China refers to the promotion of a self-sustaining mechanism in rural areas, especially in key counties for poverty alleviation and development and counties with concentrated contiguous poverty, through financial support. This initiative aims to foster a virtuous cycle of e-commerce development and increased income for farmers. The demonstration counties bear the responsibility of exploring the development of rural e-commerce, serving as models and driving forces for broader implementation.
In 2014, China's Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Commerce issued the Notice on the Comprehensive Demonstration of E-commerce in Rural Areas, demanding the establishment of a number of demonstrative counties nationwide within three years. These counties are expected to achieve an annual growth of not less than 30% in e-commerce transaction volume on the existing basis, a significant increase in the proportion of local consumer goods retail volume, a reduction in e-commerce logistics costs, and an improvement in the modernization level of rural circulation. The comprehensive demonstration continued after 2015. The initial focus of the project was on the upward mobility of rural products and services, without explicitly targeting e-commerce for poverty alleviation. However, the pilot effectively promoted the construction of local e-commerce service stations and cultivated a group of e-commerce leaders.
In May 2016, the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce, and the Office of the Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation and Development of the State Council jointly issued the Notice on Carrying Out the 2016 Comprehensive Demonstration Work of E-commerce in Rural Areas, with a national investment of 3.6 billion yuan to implement the comprehensive demonstration in 240 counties. This was the first time the State Council's Leading Group Office for Poverty Alleviation was involved, indicating that targeted poverty alleviation had become one of the main objectives of the comprehensive demonstration of e-commerce in rural areas. The comprehensive demonstration assessment explicitly stipulated that the proportion of national poverty-relief counties should not be less than 50%, reaching 66% that year. In November 2016, it and 15 other departments issued guiding opinions, proposing to accelerate the implementation of targeted e-commerce poverty alleviation projects, gradually achieving triple full coverage in eligible impoverished areas: full coverage of comprehensive demonstrations of e-commerce in rural areas for eligible poverty-relief counties; full coverage of e-commerce poverty alleviation for eligible impoverished villages; and full coverage of e-commerce poverty alleviation by third-party e-commerce platforms for eligible poverty-relief counties.
By the end of 2018, there were 1,016 comprehensive demonstration counties for e-commerce in rural areas, including 737 national poverty-relief counties, covering 88.6% of the total number of national poverty-relief counties. In June 2018, China's government proposed to continue the comprehensive demonstration project of e-commerce in rural areas. It prioritized the construction of rural e-commerce service stations in poverty-relief counties, mobilized large e-commerce enterprises and strong e-commerce counties to assist poverty-relief counties, and promoted the construction of e-commerce poverty alleviation network channels. In 2019, 215 new comprehensive demonstration counties for e-commerce were added, achieving full coverage of 832 national poverty-relief counties.
With substantial policy support, the sales volume of China's rural e-commerce network also saw rapid growth. By the end of the poverty alleviation campaign in 2020, China's rural online retail sales had exceeded 1.79 trillion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 8.9 percentage points.
