· Document Number：No. 24 [2016] of the General Office of the State Council

· Area of Law： Post and Telecommunications Internet Plus

· Level of Authority： Regulatory Documents of the State Council

· Date issued：04-15-2016

· Effective Date：04-15-2016

· Issuing Authority： General Office of the State Council

· Status： Effective

Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on In-depth Implementation of the "Internet + Circulation" Action Plan
（No. 24 [2016] of the General Office of the State Council）
To the people's governments of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, and all ministries and commissions of, and all departments directly under, the State Council,
"Internet + Circulation" is becoming the most dynamic area for widespread entrepreneurship and innovation and the important channel for achieving economic and social development on innovative, coordinated, green, opening and sharing basis. The implementation of the "Internet + Circulation" action plan is conducive to the promotion of the innovative development in circulation and the transformation and upgrading of physical commerce, expansion of new fields for consumption, promotion of entrepreneurship and employment and strengthening of new energy for economic development. In order to implement the decisions and arrangements of the State Council, further implement the "Internet + Circulation" action plan, advance the integrated online and offline development, exert force in both supply and demand sides and achieve the stability in growth, expansion in consumption, strengthening in advantages, rectification of weak points, lowering of costs and improvement of benefits, the following opinions are hereby presented upon approval by the State Council:
1. Propelling the transformation and upgrading of circulation in an accelerated manner. Centering on the satisfaction of the demand of consumers, initiatives shall be taken to carry out full-channel operation and enterprises shall be supported to give prominence to the features of goods and services, make full use of the mobile Internet, the Internet of things, big data and other information technology to conduct online and offline inaction in the aspects such as marketing, payment and after-sale services, satisfy the demand of consumers at all time and in all places and lower the consumption cost. (Ministry of Commerce, National Development and Reform Commission, State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television and local people's governments at all levels) Great efforts shall be made to develop experiencing consumption, guide enterprises where conditions permit to develop consumption experience demonstration centers by transforming the existing commercial facilities, make reasonable layout of shopping, catering, recreation, entertainment, culture, training, sports, healthcare and other experiencing consumption business and intensify the experiencing and full-course service capacity of physical stores. (Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Culture, State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, General Administration of Sport and local people's governments at all levels) Efforts shall be made to improve the capacity for management and control of supply chain and department stores and other retail businesses shall be encouraged to actively develop "buyer system", continuously increase the proportion of the commodities with the self-operated and self-owned brands, lower costs and increase benefits through various organizational forms such as chain operation and procurement alliance and improve the capacity for realizing transformation and upgrading by making use of information, network and intelligent technologies. (Ministry of Commerce, National Development and Reform Commission and local people's governments at all levels) It is imperative to intensify the influence of time-honored brands and other traditional brands, make active use of the Internet to innovate in production process and commercial modes, carry forward the traditional ethnic culture, traditional techniques and other excellent traditional culture, carry out the construction of the well-known brand demonstration zones and spread Chinese brands by online and offline interaction. (Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Culture, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and local people's governments at all levels) Commodity trading market shall be propelled to make use of the Internet to innovate in commercial modes, expand service functions, accelerate platform-based development, achieve the optimization of market structure and improvement of quality and profitability through transformation and upgrading, drive the industrial optimization and reorganization and bring into proper play the role of production guidance and consumption promotion. (Ministry of Commerce, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Land and Resources and local people's governments at all levels)
2. Actively advancing the innovative development of circulation. It is imperative to encourage the development of the new mode of sharing economy, keep close track and make reference to the new characteristics and new trend of the development of sharing economy in foreign countries, innovate in government management and services based on departmental and local actualities, stimulate the vitality of market players for entrepreneurship and innovation, encourage and accommodate enterprises' use of the Internet platform to optimize the allocation of idle resources in society, develop new spaces and new areas for consumption of products and services and expand flexible employment. (Office of the Central Leading Group for Cyberspace Affairs, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, Ministry of Commerce, State Administration for Industry and Commerce, National Tourism Administration, State Post Bureau and other relevant departments as well as local people's governments at all levels) The development of the new mode of collaborative economy shall be supported and various specific forms such as crowd innovation, crowdsourcing and crowd support shall be adopted to set up vertically in-depth and horizontally integrated collaborative relationship among upstream and downstream enterprises as well as among entrepreneurs based on industry chain, supply chain and service chain and improve the level of socialized collaboration and optimized allocation of resources. (National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Commerce, State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television and local people's governments at all levels) Circulation innovation bases shall be greatly developed and small and medium sized enterprises shall be provided with cluster registration, office premises, basic communication, operation guidance, talent training, channel promotion, credit facilities and other software and hardware integrated support services in their use of the Internet for entrepreneurship and innovation. (Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, State Administration for Industry and Commerce and local people's governments at all levels)
3. Strengthening the infrastructure construction of intelligent circulation. It is imperative to increase the policy support to the construction of logistics bases and cold-chain system, etc., make scientific planning and layout of logistics bases, distribution centers, public delivery centers and terminal delivery networks, increase the input in circulation infrastructures, support the construction of full-course cold chain system for the circulation of agricultural products and lay focus on the refrigerator construction in major national agricultural production areas. It is necessary to increase the input in the broadband construction in rural areas, accelerate the process of speed increase and fee reduction and endeavor to eliminate the "digital gap" between urban and rural areas. Further efforts shall be made to make information-based transformation of circulation infrastructures and make full use of the Internet of things and other new technologies to push forward the construction of intelligent logistics distribution system and improve the utilization of cold-chain facilities. It is necessary to scientifically develop multi-level logistics public information service platform, integrate various types of logistics resources, improve logistics efficiency and lower logistics cost. (National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Land and Resources, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Agriculture, State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, State Post Bureau and local people's governments at all levels) It is imperative to promote the coordinated development of e-commerce and logistics express delivery, make timely summary of the pilot results of the coordinated development, form the system, practices and experiences that can be replicated and popularized, make efforts to solve the difficult problems such as standard traffic of express delivery vehicles, terminal delivery and the training of e-commerce express delivery persons in basic skills and rectify the vulnerable points in the development of e-commerce logistics. (Ministry of Commerce, State Post Bureau and the people's governments of pilot cities)
4. Encouraging the development of new areas for intelligent consumption. The cities where conditions permit shall be encouraged to make exploration in the construction of the experiencing intelligent commercial areas featuring the integrated online and offline development, prompt the different businesses in modes and types in the commercial areas to complement each other's advantages, achieve interconnection in information and sharing of consumer-oriented client resources and cooperate in transformation to active service, intelligent service, intersectional service and personalized service and improve the resource integration capacity and consumer agglomeration level in the commercial areas. (Ministry of Commerce, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Land and Resources, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and local people's governments at all levels) Efforts shall be made to accelerate the implementation of featured commercial district demonstration projects, unearth the local advantages in resources, improve the capacity for featured, differentiated, precise and digital marketing and promotion of products and services and revitalize commerce in cities and towns (Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, National Tourism Administration and local people's governments at all levels) It is imperative to expand the intelligent consumption areas, actively develop virtual reality, augmented reality and other new technologies and services of artificial intelligence, greatly popularize the wearable or life service robot and other intelligent products and improve the capacity and level for supply of intelligent products and services. (National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology and local people's governments at all levels)
5. Greatly developing green circulation and consumption. Green commodities shall be promoted and the products of high consumption of energy, high pollution, high environmental pollution and excessive packaging shall be restricted from entering into the links of circulation and consumption. Green shopping center demonstration activities shall be conducted to vigorously publicize the national and industrial standards for green shopping centers and develop a batch of green shopping centers integrating the energy conservation transformation of retail stores, sale of energy conservation products and waste recycling. Green development of warehousing, distribution and packaging shall be promoted and the level of green development of commerce, trade and logistics shall be improved. "Internet + Recycling" mode innovation shall be promoted, the technologies such as big data and cloud computing shall be used to optimize the layout of reverse logistics networks, online recycling shall be encouraged and organic connection between classified recycling of household waste and recycling of renewable resources shall be strengthened. The publicity shall be conducted on the theme of "making green products available in shopping centers, green consumption available in communities and green recycling available in schools" to propel the formation of the concept and life style of advocating thrift, scientific and green consumption. (Ministry of Commerce, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Land and Resources, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives and local people's governments at all levels)
6. Further carrying forward the e-commerce in rural areas. It is imperative to stick to market-based operation and bring into full play the momentum and creativity of various market players for participating in e-commerce development in rural areas. Efforts shall be made to promote the network-based sale of agricultural products, take market demand as orientation, encourage supply and marketing cooperatives and other various market players to develop the agricultural products, agricultural means of production, leisure agriculture and other products and services suitable for online sale, guide e-commerce enterprises to set up multiple forms of association and cooperation relationship with new-type agriculture operating entities, agricultural product wholesale markets and chain supermarkets, etc., expand the channels for agricultural products to enter into urban areas, break through the bottleneck of the cold-chain transport of agricultural products, increase the income of farmers and enrich supply in urban areas. The circulation of agricultural products shall be unblocked, the expenses on platform use and market promotion of online sale of agricultural products shall be practically reduced and the capacity for the Internet and information technology application in rural areas shall be improved. E-commerce enterprises shall be encouraged to develop rural consumer market, increase the capability for structural matching of commodities and services from the supply side in light of the characteristics of consumption habit, consumption capacity and consumption demand in rural areas, bring industrial products into countryside and facilitate the consumption by farmers. Postal enterprises and other various market players shall be encouraged to integrate logistics resources in rural areas, construct and transform rural logistics public service centers and village-level networks, and effectively solve the problems with the "first kilometer" for bringing agricultural products into urban areas and the "last kilometer" for bringing industrial products into rural areas. (Ministry of Commerce, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Agriculture, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, National Tourism Administration
7. Actively propelling e-commerce into communities. Great efforts shall be made to develop community e-commerce, the development of the application software for community shopping services shall be encouraged, the integration and interaction between e-commerce enterprises and community business networks shall be strengthened, the services such as logistics distribution, self pickup of express items and e-payment shall be provided, the information, standard, normative and intensified level of community commerce shall be raised and the quality of the life of community residents shall be improved. (Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Land and Resources, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and local people's governments at all levels) The function of "one-stop" service for the convenience of the customers in consumption shall be improved and old residential communities shall be supported to make use of the idle rooms and underground spaces, etc. to build multi-level and multi-form stations for service for customers' convenience, the scattered community service resources shall be integrated online and offline, the life service networks for catering, accommodation, housekeeping, washing and dying, hairdressing and beauty, repair and maintenance, logistics, finance, culture, entertainment and leisure, etc. shall be constructed and transformed in coordinated manner, the number of shops shall be increased and the convenience of the life of urban residents and the competitiveness of urban development shall be improved. (Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Land and Resources, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Ministry of Culture, State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television and local people's governments at all levels)
8. Improving the circulation guarantee system in accelerated manner. Pilot program in non-vehicle operating carriers for road freight transportation shall be organized and conducted and non-vehicle operating carriers within the scope of the pilot program shall be allowed to provide transport service. (Ministry of Transport and National Development and Reform Commission) The application for and recognition of "Internet + Circulation" enterprises shall be implemented in accordance with the newly revised Administrative Measures for Recognition of High-tech Enterprises. (Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Finance, State Administration of Taxation and local people's governments at all levels) Same price shall be applied to the industrial and commercial use of power, large-sized commercial and trading enterprises shall be allowed to participate in direct trading of power and pilot program shall be conducted for commercial users to choose at their discretion to adopt average power price for commercial sector or time-of-use power price. (National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Commerce) It is imperative to bring into play the role of government and industrial association, make scientific planning and reasonable layout, activate inventory, optimize increment, encourage all places to adopt various powerful measures such as purchase for renting and construction for renting, guide the reduction of rental charged from physical stores, guarantee the low-cost supply at community food market, community canteens and other service facilities for the benefit and convenience of residents, guide the online enterprises to open physical stores offline and promote the online and offline integrated development. The proportion for payment of housing provident fund by circulation enterprises with difficulty shall be reduced appropriately by phase. (Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce, People's Bank of China and local people's governments at all levels)
9. Bringing into play the guiding and driving role of financial funds. It is imperative to actively push forward the "Internet + Circulation" action, make efforts to lower circulation cost, raise circulation efficiency, expand effective supply, encourage the locality where conditions permit to establish "Internet + Circulation" development fund and guide social capital and overseas capital to increase the input in application of the Internet and other information technologies in circulation field. (Local people's governments at all levels)
10. Intensifying the capacity for supporting the public services in circulation field. The integration and construction of cloud platform for commercial public services shall be encouraged and such platform shall be connected with the service resources of relevant departments so as to provide policy and basic information services for circulation field and provide small and medium sized enterprises with the services in application of the general technologies in commerce. It is imperative to accelerate the establishment and improvement of e-commerce statistics and monitoring system, set up authentic and accurate library of the information on enterprises, commodities, purchase orders, contracts, invoices, logistics waybills and other e-commerce basic information and support the efficient and standard operation of e-commerce market. (Ministry of Commerce, National Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, State Administration for Industry and Commerce, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, State Post Bureau and local people's governments at all levels) Structural adjustment to education and training shall be intensified, the continuous education of e-commerce talents shall be strengthened, the online and offline interaction and practical ability shall be improved and the inter-disciplinary talents who have knowledge of circulation, the awareness of originality and innovation and the ability of network-based operation shall be cultivated. It is imperative to guide and support various types of competitions in e-commerce innovation, originality and entrepreneurship, make interconnection between industrial institutions and investment and financing institutions and discover excellent entrepreneurship and innovation projects and talents. (Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Education)
11. Improving the system for circulation laws, regulations and standards. Close attention shall be paid to study the legislation on commodity circulation and e-commerce, etc., conduct research on the establishment of the systems for construction of circulation facilities, guarantee of commodity circulation and the maintenance of circulation order as well as other basic systems and solve the system and mechanism problems in the circulation development. (Ministry of Commerce, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Agriculture and Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council) Research shall be conducted to sort out the provisions in the existing laws and regulations that are incompatible with the innovative application and management of the Internet in circulation field, accelerate the revision to such provisions and promote the unification of online and offline rules. (Relevant departments according to their respective duties) It is imperative to improve the standard system for wholesale, retail, logistics, life services and commercial service fields, strengthen the system construction of the standards for the production, harvesting, inspection, quarantine, sorting, classification, packaging, distribution and "Internet + recovery" that are commensurate to the development of e-commerce, intensify the implementation of the standards and guide enterprises to develop in standard manner. (Ministry of Commerce, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Agriculture and General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine)
12. Creating the environment of business operation in good faith and competition in fair manner. It is imperative to meet the demand of the "Internet + Circulation", constantly innovate in regulatory means, take reasonable regulatory methods, strengthen interim and ex post regulation, increase efforts in fighting against the infringement by counterfeit, operation without permits or licenses, and false transaction, etc., ensure that the goods purchased by the public are of good quality and competitive price and guarantee worry-free consumption and safe consumption. The platform-based service enterprises shall be encouraged to make use of technical means to strengthen the monitoring, identification and prevention of violations of laws and regulations, take the initiatives to set up joint prevention and joint control mechanism with law enforcement departments. Drastic measures shall be taken to crack down on the activities of platform-based service enterprises covering up or conniving at the operation in violation of laws and regulations so as to create the business environment based on rule of law that can guarantee the smooth implementation of the "Internet + Circulation" action plan. (Ministry of Commerce, State Administration of Industry and Commerce, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and China Food and Drug Administration) Efforts shall be made to push forward the construction of commercial credit system, improve the government department credit information sharing mechanism in combination of the registration system reform highlighting the "integration of the business license, the organization code certificate, and the certificate of taxation registration into one document and one code for one license" and by making full use of the national credit information sharing platform and enterprise credit information disclosure system, provide services to the public via www.creditchina.gov.cn, set up the market-based enterprise credit information collection, sharing and use mechanism based on evaluation on transactions by consumers and comprehensive evaluation by the public, constantly optimize evaluation standards and methods, and form the commercial honesty system involving multiple participants and based on uniform standards, (Ministry of Commerce, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the People's Bank of China, State Administration for Industry and Commerce and General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine)
All places and all departments shall strengthen organization, leadership and implementation, bring into effective play both the decisive role of the market in resource allocation and the guiding and controlling role of government, and ensure long-term benefits based on the present situation. All places shall, based on the local actualities, formulate specific implementing plans to specify the division of work and responsibilities, The Ministry of Commerce shall, in conjunction with relevant departments, set up work contact mechanism, strengthen overall arrangement, coordination, business guidance, supervision and inspection and report any major issues and situation to the State Council in a timely manner.
General Office of the State Council
April 15, 2016