China unveils comprehensive action plan to advance modern commercial circulation system

The Chinese government on Tuesday publicized an action plan to improve the modern commercial circulation system and promote the high-quality development of wholesale and retail industries, in an effort to promote the integrated development of urban and rural areas and rejuvenate the nation's rural regions.

The overall goal of the action plan is to establish a modern commercial circulation system by 2027 that is interconnected, efficient, and seamless, linking urban and rural areas and aligning production with sales.

The plan outlines four key tasks to achieve the objective, including developing a tiered urban commercial layout, enhancing the logistics distribution system at the county, township, and village levels, and achieving cold chain circulation rates of 25 percent for fruits and vegetables and 45 percent for meat.

It also focuses on accelerating the transformation of wholesale and retail industries by nurturing 100 key agricultural wholesale markets and promoting the rapid growth of new formats such as brand chains, instant retail, and live e-commerce, while continuously strengthening distribution organization capabilities.

Additionally, the plan emphasizes elevating levels of digitalization, standardization, and environmental sustainability by creating digital supply chain service platforms, increasing pallet standardization rates to around 40 percent, and enhancing the recycling system for renewable resources.

Furthermore, it aims to advance domestic and international integration by fostering the development of globally competitive enterprises in the distribution sector and accelerating the integration of domestic and international trade.

"This action plan is driven by supply chains and focuses on the high-quality development of wholesale and retail sectors. It fully reflects our requirements for new quality productive forces and high-quality development, emphasizing five key principles: innovation-driven growth, efficiency improvement, structural optimization, green development, and international cooperation. These principles are integrated throughout the entire action plan," said Chen Jin, chief professor of the Modern Service Industry Research Center of the University of International Business and Economics.

Specifically, the action plan proposes to cultivate 500 leading commercial counties across the nation, renovate 5,000 township marketplaces (including trade centers and markets) and establish approximately 50,000 convenient rural stores.

Additionally, the plan seeks to develop a number of county-based live e-commerce hubs and nurture leading digital circulation enterprises within rural areas, so as to ensure that each administrative village has at least one comprehensive logistics service station and that the proportion of joint distribution in counties exceeds 30 percent. Furthermore, the plan aims to foster 100 key agricultural product wholesale markets and also sets a target for online retail sales of agricultural products to surpass 700 billion yuan.

Experts emphasize the importance of enhancing rural commerce as part of the broader economic development strategy. They highlight that addressing these weaknesses is crucial for achieving a more balanced and efficient commercial circulation system across urban and rural areas.

"In the modern commercial circulation system, the distribution of agricultural products and rural commerce have always been a weak link. Therefore, the action plan emphasizes filling the gaps in rural commercial circulation and further improving the agricultural supply chain," said Li Ziwen, deputy director of the institute of industrial economics and technological economics under the National Development and Reform Commission.

"As China's economic development has now shifted to a stage of high-quality growth, the gap between the urban and rural commercial circulation systems is rapidly narrowing. This action plan focuses on building the rural commercial logistics system to better achieve coordinated urban-rural development," said Yi Shaohua, director of the Market Circulation and Consumption Research Office at the National Academy of Economic Strategy under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

China unveils comprehensive action plan to advance modern commercial circulation system

China will take more effective measures to improve people's wellbeing, especially in education, healthcare, and social security, an official said Thursday in Beijing at a press conference on the interpretation of this year's government work report, which was submitted to the national legislature for deliberation earlier in the day.

Shen Danyang, head of the government work report drafting team and director of the State Council Research Office, said centering on enhancing educational equity and quality, the report made arrangements for education at all educational stages and of all types.

"Regarding preschool education, the policy of free education in the year prior to entering primary school will continue to be implemented this year, which is commonly referred to as free admission to the senior class of kindergartens. So, how can the income reduction of kindergartens be addressed? Subsidies will be provided by both the central and local governments, with the central government taking the lion's share. This year, the funds allocated to support the development of preschool education will increase significantly by 37.8 percent to ensure the implementation of the beneficial policy," he said.

Regarding senior high school education, Shen said the report stated that the supply of regular senior high school places will be increased,

Specifically, for areas with a continuous net inflow of population, a number of regular high schools will be planned and constructed on an annual basis. For regions with a temporary shortage of school places, priority will be given to the renovation and expansion of existing teaching buildings, student dormitories and canteens, he said.

Shen said the report put forward many supportive measures in healthcare.

"For instance, it urged efforts to strengthen coordination in drug use at the grassroots level, which mean improving the list of essential drugs, and optimizing the channels for drug supply and drug use coordination between upper- and lower-level medical and health institutions to make it more convenient for the public to use drugs at their doorstep. Besides, the report has made arrangements for supporting the development of innovative drugs for the third consecutive year. This year, China will strengthen the coordination of supportive policies in an all-round way, further address issues such as the barriers facing innovative drugs entering hospitals, and better meet the diverse medical and medication needs of the people," he said.

In terms of social security, Shen said the report proposed to continue raising the minimum standard of basic pensions for urban and rural residents -- a policy will benefit over 180 million elderly people.

"The central government will allocate 1.25 trillion yuan (about 181.25 billion U.S. dollars) in subsidy funds to ensure the timely and full payment of pensions. In response to the insufficient protection of the rights and interests of people engaging in new occupations, the report proposed to steadily and orderly expand the scale of the pilot program for occupational injury insurance. This year, the policy will cover 31 provincial-level regions across the country and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Meanwhile, enterprises specializing in travel, instant delivery and intra-city freight delivery will be included in the pilot program, which will ensure the safety of more laborers, such as food delivery workers and online car-hailing drivers," he said.

China to improve people's wellbeing in education, healthcare, social security: official