Since 2017, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping as its core, the Ministry of Commerce ("MOFCOM") has solidly set up the "Four Consciousness", comprehensively implemented the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress, thoroughly studied Xi Jinping’s thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, actively adapted to the new normal of economic development, put into practice the new development concepts, and comprehensively carried out major strategies including deepening the supply-side structural reform, accelerating the construction of innovative country and promoting the formation of a new overall opening pattern. In terms of e-commerce and informatization, the MOFCOM strived to solidly promote the implementation of work and facilitate the achievement of remarkable effects in innovative development of commerce by aiming to adapting to the new requirements for digital economy, focusing on constituting the mechanism of "horizontal cooperation and vertical linkage" and adhering to problem-oriented and innovation-driven principles.
According to the statistical data, the amount of nationwide online retailing from January to November 2017 was RMB 6.4306 trillion, 32.4% higher than that of 2016, including RMB 4.9144 trillion from physical commodities which increased by 27.6% with the increase speed 17.3% higher than that from social consumables in the same period. The e-commerce in advantageous regions, such as Beijing Municipality, Zhejiang Province and Guangdong, kept the steady growth, while the growth of e-commerce in Anhui Province, Hainan Province and Shaanxi Province accelerated with the growth speed exceeding 40%. The good situation of rapid growth in e-commerce development kept on.
Innovate the development idea and serve the overall situation of economy. Adapted to the development in the new era and new journey, kept close track with the latest development and application of big data, artificial intelligence and other kinds of advanced information technology, deeply analyzed the characteristics and rules with respect to the development of digital economy in China, carried out deep investigations and researches centering on the five major parts of the MOFCOM and presented new ideas on development of digital commerce. Organized and launched the framework research on digital commerce theories and drafted relevant policies and measures for promoting digital commerce to become a new driving force for commerce reform and development. Comprehensively summarized the experience gained from pilot coordinated development of e-commerce, logistics and express with systematic policies and measures formed for popularization, eliminated the weakness in industry development and set up a high-quality sustainable development mechanism.
Strengthen the implementation of policies and promote the upgrading of circulation. Focused on promoting the implementation of the Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on the Further Implementation of the Action Plan for "Internet Plus Circulation" and the 13th Five-year Development Plan for E-commerce, set up the ledger of annual tasks and, with consensus and joint force, coordinate with relevant departments under the State Council to strengthen the implementation of work for the purpose of breaking through the development bottleneck in respect of land, facilities, talents, etc. Enhanced the work supervision and guidance on local departments in charge of commerce, summarized the work progress, experience and effect gained from regional implementation of the "Internet Plus Circulation" action in time, strengthened the work communication, publicity and reporting and motivated the innovation vitality of market entities so as to make the transformation of circulation, innovation and coordinated development reach a new stage.
Insist on problem-orientated principle and strengthen the system construction. Paid attention to the latest trend of e-commerce development at any time, mastered the new conditions and problems in time, adapted actively to the new requirements of new modes and business formats for government regulation services, innovated the work methods and coordinated all parties in proper treatment of industrial emergencies and promoted the formation of multiparty co-governance. For prominent problems in the development, deeply analyzed the reasons, discovered the essence, put forward the suggestion for system improvement, vigorously promoted the e-commerce legislation, positively launched the research on reservation of supporting regulations, and guided local parties to, in combination with the regional characteristics, formulate the regulations on e-commerce promotion. Jointly with the Standardization Administration of the P.R.C., issued the Guidelines for the Standardization of Online Retails, and published three industry standards.
Set up model demonstrations and guide innovative development. Selected and published 238 2017-2018 demonstration e-commerce enterprises, and organized such enterprises to sign letters of commitment for creditable operation, so as to guide them to regulate their operation. Strengthened the summary, publicity and communication in respect of innovation modes and typical experience of demonstration enterprises to guide the innovative development of enterprises. Strengthened the comprehensive assessment and instruction on demonstration e-commerce bases, urged regions to adjust measures to local conditions and improve the policy systems to create efficient public services, set up the cooperation mechanism integrating production, learning, research and use, cultivated e-commerce enterprises with regional characteristics, promoted the transformation and upgrading of e-commerce applied by traditional enterprises, and drove the integrated development, quality development and green development of local economy.
Resolve the difficulty in sales of agricultural products and implement the targeted poverty alleviation. For the difficulty in sales of agricultural products in Guangxi Province, Shaanxi Province, Jiangsu Province, Shandong Province, Xinjiang Province, etc., the MOFCOM dispatched personnel for spot investigation in first time, mobilized and organized large-scale e-commerce enterprises to launch the sales promotion, and established the special purchase-sales connection at http://nc.mofcom.gov.cn/, so as to effectively help peasant households to remit the sales difficulty. Arranging the financial fund of RMB 4.1 billion for further comprehensive demonstration of e-commerce in rural areas, the MOFCOM, focusing on the impoverished counties, has supported over 230 demonstration counties to develop rural e-commerce. Focusing on dredging the upstream channel of agricultural products, well-known e-commerce enterprises were organized to set up a poverty alleviation channel to grant the traffic support, reduction or exemption of service fees and other preferential measures to the online sales of agricultural products in poverty-stricken areas.
Extend international space to seek for joint development. With the new highlight of the "Silk-Road E-commerce", set up the bilateral e-commerce cooperation mechanism with seven countries and promoted the external link of various large-scale platforms by holding the policy communication meetings, foreign aid trainings, government-enterprise roundtable conferences and bilateral forums. Established the international rule system of e-commerce actively, promoted the negotiations concerning e-commerce topics under dozens of free trade agreements, and completed the negotiations concerning e-commerce topics under Sino-Georgia and Sino-Chile free trade agreements and Sino-Eurasian-Economic-Union economic and trade cooperation agreement. Took an active part in the consultations on e-commerce topics under the multilateral trade mechanisms and regional trade arrangement frameworks such as the World Trade Organization, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Lancang-Mekong cooperation and facilitated the establishment of BRICS e-commerce group and the conclusion of the Initiative on E-commerce Cooperation of BRICS. Accelerated the establishment of the statistical and monitoring system suitable to the characteristics of cross-border e-commerce, extended again the transition period for regulation of cross-border e-commerce retail imports and continued improving the construction of supply chain. Continued deepening the e-commerce communication and cooperation with countries along and those radiated by the "Belt and Road", and contributed Chinese experience and power for joint development through the new channels for economic and trade cooperation.
Gather data resources and safeguard scientific decisions. Explored the establishment of the big data system for commerce, extended data sources, set up the quarterly commerce consultation system for industries, implemented the data sharing with large-scale e-commerce enterprises, further expanded the monitoring range of online retails and formed the information reporting mechanisms, such as weekly report, monthly report, quarterly report and annual report. Comprehensively sorted out and analyzed the business demands in the commerce field, intensified the capabilities of data processing, analysis and application, integrated deeply the information system for government affairs in the commerce field, vertically managed the sharing of the whole-process data of business application with local regions and improved the timeliness and accuracy of the decision making of the whole business system.
Optimize public services and raise the efficiency of administration. Promoted deeply the "internet plus government affairs service" by depending on the web portal of the MOFCOM. Established the online government affairs hall of the MOFCOM, promoted the whole-process informatization of administrative licensing items, provided the "one-stop" and "whole-process information disclosure" services to enterprises and the public and improved the efficiency and transparency of the government service for the purpose of making it more convenient, more quick and more efficient for enterprises and the masses to handle their affairs. Innovated the service content and, according to the demands of the public and enterprises, integrated the internal and external service resources, created and continued improving the global regulations, trade tax and other series of public commerce information service products so as to enhance the public services. The web portal of the MOFCOM, which has been ranked first in the performance assessment of ministry and commission websites for 16 consecutive years, was highly praised by the public and authorities.
New journey starts with a new point. 2018 is the first year for the implementation of the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress. We will, rallying closely around the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping as its core, deeply implement the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress and the deployment of the Central Economic Work Conference, take Xi Jinping’s thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era as the guidance, firmly grasp the fundamental requirement - high-quality development, uphold the principles of skillful in planning, brave to practice and dare to undertake, and adhere to effectively carrying out e-commerce and informatization, provide assistance in realizing new breakthroughs in the commerce development and contribute power to establishment of a moderately prosperous society in all-around way and achievement of the Chinese Dream on great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation!
Translated by Hou Zuowei
