Express delivery into the village: the finishing touch of "Internet + Countryside"

Without an inclusive, standardized, convenient and efficient logistics delivery system, it is difficult to flow goods and information between urban and rural areas. Accelerating the development of the express industry and promoting the development of rural e-commerce complement and promote each other. The virtuous circle of the two will certainly become an important force to promote rural development, increase farmers' income, prosper the rural economy and narrow the gap between urban and rural areas.

Recently, the State Council issued some opinions of the State Council on promoting the development of the express industry. The "opinion" puts forward that by 2020, an express service system with universal benefits in urban and rural areas, advanced technology, high quality service, safety and efficiency, green and energy saving will be basically built, and a national and international service network will be formed. This "opinion" is a policy support with the highest legal effect in the field of express delivery since the revision of the Postal Law in 2009. Its introduction is of milestone significance to the development of China's express industry, especially the rural express industry.

China's private express industry started in the 1990s. After more than 20 years of development, the express industry has become a "dark horse" in China's service industry and even in the overall economic development of our country. According to relevant statistics, during the 12th five-year Plan period, the average annual growth rate of express business volume exceeded 50%. In 2014, China's express business volume completed 13.96 billion pieces, six times that at the end of the Eleventh five-year Plan, and directly absorbed more than 1.2 million people. Remarkable achievements have been made in development.

However, a huge defect in the development of China's express industry is the imbalance between urban and rural development. The growth of business volume, the increase of express delivery outlets and the direct absorption of employed people are mostly concentrated in cities. There are many reasons. First of all, most of the rural areas are relatively remote, the traffic road condition is poor, and the residents live separately. For express delivery companies, whether it is delivery or collection, the transportation cost is too high; secondly, whether online shopping or letter delivery, compared with urban areas, the volume of express delivery business in rural areas is relatively small. These factors make the development of logistics express industry in rural areas slow and lagging behind.

This time, the "opinions" issued by the State Council are worth looking forward to in view of the development of the rural express industry. one is to clearly put forward that by 2020, there will be basic rural outlets and village-to-village express delivery, with an annual express business volume of 50 billion pieces and an annual business income of 800 billion yuan. Second, it is clearly proposed to implement the express delivery "downward, westward and outward" project, improve the service network in rural and western regions, and create two-way channels for "industrial products to the countryside" and "agricultural products to cities", so as to drive rural consumption. From the "opinions", it is not difficult to find that the state is strengthening the promotion of the development of the rural express industry from the central level, and behind this high level promotion is the logic of the country activating the rural economic development with the "Internet +" strategy.

Under the background of "mass entrepreneurship and mass innovation", "Internet + Countryside" has been entrusted with the great mission of activating the rural economy, and in order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to promote the synchronous development of the "troika". They are: the improvement of telecom universal service compensation mechanism, the development of rural e-commerce, and the development of rural express industry. At the executive meeting of the State Council held on October 14, the specific target of covering 98% of administrative villages by 2020 for broadband telecommunications services was put forward, and four specific measures for the development of rural e-commerce were also put forward. Now, once again, the "opinions" have been issued in the name of the State Council, completing the strategic promotion of the rural express industry, the last step of the "troika". In this process, we can see that the country is promoting the "Internet + rural" strategy step by step, and the logic of the strategic framework behind it is clearly visible.

Looking forward to the development of the rural express industry, it should be said that the potential is huge and promising in the future, because the development of the rural express industry is directly linked to the consumption potential of rural e-commerce, and the number of farmers' online orders directly determines the development potential of rural express delivery. According to the Rural E-commerce consumption report (2014) released by Alibaba Research Institute, the rural online shopping market continues to expand, reaching more than 180 billion yuan in 2014, and is expected to exceed 460 billion yuan in 2016. Therefore, it is the right time to promote the development of the rural express industry. To make up for the shortcomings of the development of the rural express industry, we must first increase the central financial investment and guide the local governments to strengthen policy and financial support, but after all, the financial resources of the government are limited, and it is impossible for the government to do everything. It is also necessary to stimulate social forces to participate in the construction, explore the PPP model (joint venture mode between the government and social subjects), and arouse the enthusiasm of all kinds of social subjects. For example, Alibaba Group plans to invest 10 billion yuan in the next three to five years to establish an e-commerce system to serve rural areas, and JD.com Group also plans to build a rural logistics and villager agency system. For the participation of these social forces, we should pay attention to protect their enthusiasm and standardize and guide them.

The introduction of the "opinion" of the State Council, for "Internet + Countryside", its direct significance is to speed up the development of rural express industry, while the deep significance is to focus on starting the blue ocean of rural e-commerce. Without an inclusive, standardized, convenient and efficient logistics delivery system, it is difficult to flow goods and information between urban and rural areas. Speeding up the development of express industry and promoting the development of rural e-commerce is a complementary and mutually reinforcing relationship. We believe that the virtuous circle of the rural express industry and rural e-commerce will certainly become an important force to promote rural development, increase farmers' income, prosper the rural economy, and narrow the gap between urban and rural areas.