Campaign to promote e-commerce in Guangdong

The Guangdong government plans to introduce a campaign to promote e-commerce websites that are based in the province and encourage Guangdong manufacturers to try selling their wares online.

Qi Zhenli, an official from the Economics and Information Commission of Guangdong and the executive director of the campaign, said it is an innovative way of speeding up the development of e-commerce in Guangdong.

"Guangdong's economy is under a lot of pressure," Qi said at a press conference on Monday. "It's urgent to speed up improvements to Guangdong's distribution industry to lower the cost of distribution and make Guangdong products more able to compete in the global market."

The approaching campaign will promote online sales and expand the market for Guangdong products. Qi pointed out that the prospects for e-commerce are promising in Guangdong.

"We shouldn't transport factories or goods here. We already have production bases in Guangdong," Qi said. "Besides, we have a large number of consumers. And Guangdong's retail sales of social-consumption products have surpassed a value of 2 trillion yuan ($314.56 billion), the highest seen in China in many years."

"Now we need to bring some changes to this pattern of consumption."

Guangdong is home to more Internet users than other provinces, and is also the location of more online sales.

In the campaign, the Guangdong government plans to enlist at least 10 e-commerce platforms, 100 online shopping malls, 1,000 online stores selling Guangdong products and 10,000 industrial and commercial enterprises.

The government is calling on the participants to introduce sales promotions during the four-month campaign, concentrating on high-tech electronics, smart home appliances and brands with a long history.

More than 1,000 enterprises have entered the campaign. According to Qi, the participants are mainly small- and-medium sized enterprises. Large ones, he explained, don't need help from the government in establishing and developing their online sales.

Chen Rongqiu, chief economist at the Economics and Information Commission of Guangdong, said the commission will conduct an examination after the campaign, looking at the enterprises that participated. It will then offer financial support to those that are starting online business.

Guangzhou Daily has reported that the Guangdong government will invest 500 million yuan on developing e-commerce in the province.