Ministry of Commerce: Strengthen the construction of county commercial systems and enhance county cultural tourism service functions

On June 11, 17 departments including the Ministry of Commerce issued opinions on strengthening the construction of county commercial systems to promote rural consumption.

Implement the county commercial construction action and establish and improve the rural commercial system with county as the center, towns as the focus and villages as the basis. By 2025, in areas where conditions are met, it will be basically achieved that counties and counties have chain stores and logistics distribution centers, towns and villages have business centers, and every village has express delivery. An average of 1 million new rural online merchants (stores) will be added every year, and 30 new rural online merchants (stores) will be cultivated. The coverage rate of national-level professional markets for agricultural product origins and municipal-level public welfare markets selling agricultural products has increased from 40% to 60%.

Improving commercial facilities in the county. Take counties as an important entry point for coordinating rural commercial development, strengthen county comprehensive commercial service capabilities, and promote county-rural commercial linkage. Transform and upgrade the county's comprehensive business service center and logistics distribution center. Encourage large-scale urban circulation companies to expand into rural markets, build private warehousing and other equipment and facilities, and demonstrate to promote the development of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Build township business centers. Encourage enterprises to build and renovate a number of township business centers through self-construction, cooperation, etc., promote the integration of shopping, entertainment, leisure and other formats, and improve the consumption environment in townships. Guide township business centers to expand services to surrounding rural areas to meet farmers’ consumption upgrade needs.

Transform traditional rural commercial outlets. Encourage commercial circulation enterprises to export management and services, transform traditional outlets such as mom-and-pop stores, and develop new rural convenience stores through technological empowerment, franchising, supply chain integration, etc. Enrich village-level stores with express delivery and delivery, agricultural product brokerage and other services to meet farmers' needs for convenient consumption and nearby sales.

Support enterprise digitalization and chain transformation. Cultivate key commercial and trade circulation enterprises in the county and guide them to become stronger and bigger through organizational innovation and resource integration. Guide supply and marketing, postal services, express delivery and traditional rural trade and circulation enterprises to use 5G, big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies to strengthen data drive, promote digital product innovation, intelligent operation and management, and precise services for farmers, and accelerate transformation and upgrading. Support the development of direct chain, franchise chain and other business models, encourage brand chain circulation enterprises to join through chain or equity franchising, and promote the chainization of county and rural commercial networks.

Enhance county cultural tourism service functions. Encourage towns and villages rich in cultural tourism, folk customs and other resources to promote the integrated development of business, tourism, culture, entertainment and sports, and attract urban residents to go to the countryside for consumption. Encourage inns and hotels to provide cultural tourism services, cooperate with the construction of key rural tourism villages and towns in the country, the list of national preferred rural B&Bs, and forest scenic spots, develop rural B&Bs, self-driving RV campsites, cabin campsites, tent campsites, etc., improve supporting living service facilities, and improve services level. Rationally develop and utilize agricultural cultural heritage, cultivate rural characteristic cultural industries, and build a number of characteristic cultural industry villages and towns and cultural industry clusters. Launch a number of high-quality leisure agriculture and rural tourism routes, create rural leisure tourism gathering areas, and build beautiful leisure villages and key counties for national leisure agriculture. Innovate and organize special agricultural festivals, develop the exhibition economy, and promote the sales of special agricultural products.