By combining leading internet technologies with the poorest areas and population, e-commerce has created a host of innovative measures to help poverty reduction and rural revitalization.

Data shows thatonline retail sales of goods from poverty-stricken counties reached 239.2 billion yuan, growing 33 percent on a year-on-year basis. About 5 million farmers have been employed and their income increased.

First, we should improve e-commerce infrastructure, including transportation, internet, electricity, logistics, warehousing, etc. By the end of June, 2020, all townships and villages, where conditions permit, have been connected by tarmac or cement roads, 98 percent poor villages had access to optical fiber (representing a 28 percent increase over the 70 percent in 2017), 96.6 percent townships and villages had set up express delivery service stations, and e-commerce service centers were in place in all 823 national-level poor counties. In a word, all counties, townships and villages in poor areas have been covered by e-commerce management and logistics networks.

Second, we need to develop specialty products to boost poverty reduction. Poor regions should develop their own products based on realities on the ground, like black fungus in Zhashui of Shaanxi province, apples in Li county of Gansu province and honey in Ximeng of Yunnan province. Inspection and testing of the quality and safety of agricultural products should be stepped up; standards should be formulated on origin certification, quality, tracing, refrigeration, preservation, classification, packaging and cold-chain logistics; certification for novel, special, quality and branded products should be promoted to ensure that e-commerce poverty alleviation meets standards, reaches considerable size and has its own brands.

Third, we should improve support systems. Primary-level poverty alleviation officials should mobilize and encourage the poor to engage in e-commerce by letting them understand how to share the dividends of technological advancements; banks and payment platforms should offer facilitation in micro-credit and modes of payment; relevant associations and social organizations should provide poor households with standardized services in goods collection, tiered packaging, branding, marketing, logistics and after-sales servicr to ensure steady long-term progress.

Fourth, we should build platforms for company-to-company cooperation. The State Council Poverty Alleviation Office has already united producers in poor areas with a large number of e-commerce sales platforms, including JD.com, Suning, Alibaba and Pinduoduo. During the 2020 June 18 online shopping festival, the transaction value of agricultural products within the first hour was 17 times higher thanin the previous year at JD.com. There were more than 1.2 million sellers from poor counties on Tmall of Taobao. For instance, Xiangyun county of Yunnan province sold out overstocked potatoes during COVID-19 by using the express service of China Post.

Fifth, we should empower entrepreneurs in rural areas. Over 10 million people are estimated to have received e-commerce know-how and skills training nationwide by the end of 2020 and more than 1 million young high-caliber e-commerce talents will be ready to work in rural areas, which means that each poor village has at least one specialized person. We should encourage college graduates who come from rural areas to return home after graduation, and support youth, women, and physically challenged people in rural areas engage in e-commerce employment or business start-ups. By empowering women to eradicate poverty, we have trained 1.22 million women with relevant skills and set up 636 such demonstration centers.

Last, we should build the architecture for poverty alleviation within which government, society and market join forces to create synergy. Through east-west collaboration, the market and technology advantages of the eastern regions could complement the labor, land and natural resources of the west. Through programs like Project Hope and Guangcai Program, we can mobilize more resources from all sectors of society to help win the battle against poverty. Through targeted poverty alleviation, we’ve enhanced support to poverty-stricken areas. For example, central enterprises in the poverty alleviation campaign in the first half of this year purchased 927 million yuan worth of over 1,800 kinds of agricultural products from 178 counties hard hit by COVID-19, thus reducing the disease’s impact on these areas.

Poverty alleviation through e-commerce has, on the one hand, promoted the development of poor rural areas and boosted the income of poor residents, and on the other, opened up new prospects for industrial and overall development in rural areas.

E-commerce has helped overcome remote locations, poor transportation conditions and other hurdles and given agricultural products in remote areas access to city market. This has brought about tangible results in industrial development and income increase in poor areas. In particular, e-commerce has solved many urgent problems and helped sell overstocked agricultural products during COVID-19, and sales of such products registered a new record high during this year’s June 18th online shopping festival. The digital economy in rural areas, represented by e-commerce poverty alleviation, has become a new driving force in resolving issues related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers and in achieving the target of poverty eradication.

At the same time, it has boosted industrial development in rural areas. By integrating production, supply, sales and purchases, e-commerce has mobilized all forces in society to join the battle against poverty. On the one hand, e-commerce gives products from poor areas direct access to domestic and international supply and industrial chains; on the other, it changes the traditional way of production and sales, empowers leading companies, cooperatives and self-employed entrepreneurs and incorporates them into a more stable coalition, thus laying a solid foundation for long-term industrial prosperity in rural areas.

What’s more, e-commerce is injecting new impetus into rural development. Targeted poverty alleviation underlines the importance of educational improvement and technological advancement. E-commerce energizes indigenous strength in poor households by training millions of farmers and attracting large numbers of migrant workers home. Digital technology is the new agricultural material, cellphone the new farming tool and live streaming the new farm work.

The world today is undergoing great changes rarely seen in a century. The Chinese people should ride with the tide of the times, nurture opportunities in crises and open up new space in a changing landscape. Poverty alleviation through e-commerce is an innovative step that China takes to contribute wisdom and experience to the world’s poverty reduction cause.

First, China has a strong leadership core. The Communist Party of China is the fundamental guarantee for the success of poverty eradication. Only with the leadership of the CPC was it possible for a large country of 1.3 billion population to lift 700 million people out of poverty in four decades. This is unprecedented in human history and a huge contribution to the world’s poverty reduction efforts. The CPC, with its clear political strength, has rallied Chinese people of all ethnic groups, coordinated human and material resources in an effective manner, mobilized all possible strengths, explored new ways of surmounting difficulties and made exceptional achievements in a relatively short period of time.

Second, we should stay committed to the policy of e-commerce poverty alleviation. The actions we take need to be accurate and targeted. Authorities at various levels should adopt specific measures based on ground realities and focus on quality rather than pursuing merely quantity. Responsibilities need to be set clearly. The role of evaluation and assessment should be stressed and people in charge should take primary responsibility. Capital and project management systems and rules should be strictly followed to increase the efficiency of capital distribution and utilization. Results should also be accurate and precise. Relevant authorities should make use of the rural monitoring and managing system of the Ministry of Commerce to promote information and data sharing, generate unified statistics in various aspects and explore a mode of piloting, promotion and popularization.

Last, we should give full play to the strength of socialism with Chinese characteristics and pool all possible resources to deal with major issues. We should continue with efforts to improve infrastructure and public service in regions with deep-seated poverty, which will lay a solid foundation for poverty alleviation. All forces of society should be mobilized to join the endeavor. With east-west complementarity and multi-level collaboration, we should further integrate poverty reduction with educational improvement and coordinate development with the protection of basic needs. We should take a holistic perspective in improving top-level design, incorporate poverty alleviation into the five-sphere integrated plan and the four-pronged comprehensive strategy, and blaze a new trail of poverty alleviation with Chinese characteristics.

The author is the President of School of Government and Director of Research Center for Rural Areas, Beijing Normal University.

The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.

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