By Liang Yangchun, Almanac of China’s Economy & Zhou Jianqi, Enterprise Research Institute, DRC

Research Report No. 16, 2018 (Total 5291) 2018-1-17

Abstract: In recent years, the postal enterprises have blazed a new path for the service of agriculture, rural areas and farmers and have achieved good results. These enterprises have provided relevant service staff, transportation vehicles and credit guarantees to related rural areas, addressed “weak links” where both financial and information are needed for the service of agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and effectively boosted fair service for urban and rural areas. At the same time, the postal enterprises, based on the service for agriculture, rural areas and farmers, have laid a solid foundation for providing comprehensive social services. The postal service in Shandong province is a case in point and its experience can be narrowed down to the following aspects. The postal enterprises have made pilot practice in forging new service forms relating to postal logistics, capital flows and information flows; they have created postal channels for sharing development results between urban and rural areas; and they have focused on rural poverty alleviation in fulfilling state-owned enterprises’ social responsibility. Facts show that postal enterprises enjoy a big room for manoeuvre in rending service to agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and the new service organizations such as “postal cooperatives”, “postal farms” and “postal service-based e-commerce platforms” can form synergy between small-scale farming and large-scale state markets. The government needs to enable postal enterprises to launch pilot service to agriculture, rural areas and farmers and their experience could be borrowed by other state-owned enterprise. In addition, the government needs to reform the relevant institutional systems and formulate supportive policy measures in need.

Key words: postal enterprises, service for agriculture, rural areas and farmers, typical cases, enlightenments and policy options