|
Growth of last-mile delivery services should be encouraged, premier says China will improve the delivery logistics system in rural areas to
further facilitate the flow of agricultural produce to urban households,
and consumer goods to rural areas, as part of the effort to advance
rural vitalization, increase farmers' incomes and unlock rural consumer
demand, the State Council's executive meeting chaired by Premier Li
Keqiang decided on Wednesday. "Expanding the logistics services, especially express delivery, to
rural areas is an apparent trend. This will both boost rural consumption
and sales of agricultural produce," Li said. Integrated development of e-commerce and delivery logistics in rural
areas will be advanced. The Internet Plus approach will be employed to
better align urban markets and logistics companies with farm households
and farmer cooperatives. Specialized agricultural products delivery services and cold-chain
storage and processing facilities will be developed, which is expected
to boost the sales of agricultural produce and especially promote the
development of distinct local business sectors in rural areas that have
just eliminated poverty. The efforts to cover all administrative villages with delivery
services will be advanced based on local conditions. Faster progress
will be made to shore up the infrastructural weak links of rural
delivery logistics. In rural areas of eastern and central China, the role of market
forces will be better leveraged, and enterprises will be guided in
setting up outlets in villages, to provide better delivery services in
rural areas. In rural areas of western China, postal service providers need to
fully play their basic role in the last-mile delivery, and also need to
cooperate more closely with sectors such as express delivery and supply
and marketing so that delivery services will be extended to cover more
villages. "While adhering to market-oriented methods and competitive
development, we should also place greater emphasis on the provision of
public services. Support will be provided to improve relevant
infrastructure in the rural areas," Li said. "The reform of government
functions must be steadily advanced to ensure fair competition." The reform of government functions in the delivery sector will be
deepened, and unwarranted and unnecessary restrictions will be removed.
Furthermore, the development of last-mile delivery services in rural
areas will be encouraged. Existing facilities in the villages will be used when developing
integrated delivery logistics service stations at village level, to
effectively lower the costs of last-mile delivery service in rural
areas. Oversight of delivery logistics services will also be
strengthened to promote fair competition and protect people's lawful
rights and interests.
| 
Related News
