E-commerce projects planned in 200 counties with 25,000 villages to boost employment

JD.com Inc, the e-commerce major, and the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development have signed a partnership to apply the government's "Internet Plus" strategy to poverty alleviation in the country's rural areas.

According to the agreement, they will jointly explore using e-commerce to boost income, generate jobs and encourage people to set up their own ventures.

Beijing-based JD.com said it is committed to investing more in China's poverty-stricken regions between 2016 and 2020. It will focus on helping build logistics infrastructure to ensure that farm produce can be sold and delivered to urban areas online.

Hong Tianyun, deputy director of the poverty alleviation and development office, said that China has lifted more than 700 million people out of poverty over the past 30 years, which is a tremendous achievement.

"But there are still many people across the country living in poverty.

"That means they not only live on low incomes but also suffer from poor road infrastructure, poor healthcare and education," he said.

Hong's office spent all of 2014 registering everyone who had an annual income below 2,300 yuan ($349.6) in China, and found 70 million people are still below the poverty line.

The JD.com cooperation is expected to help lift 2 million people out of poverty in China, said the joint statement.

JD.com will be working on projects in 200 counties with 25,000 villages.

The core of the plan is to help people build their own online shops on JD.com's platform so that they can sell local products to online shoppers around China.

It will also help train one million people in basic e-commerce skills, to improve their chances of both running their own business and finding work.

Liu Qiangdong, JD.com's chief executive officer, said many enterprises have made contributions to rural China but some have been in vain because they failed to find and access those who need help most.

"The poverty alleviation and development office has set up a system that registers everyone living in poverty and through the cooperation, we will be able to accurately help those in most need," Liu said.

JD.com said that around 70 percent of its employees are from rural areas.

Internally, the company has its own foundation worth 30 million yuan, which provides workers with financial help if they run into personal difficulties.

mengjing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 02/11/2016 page15)