Hohhot launches service center targeting low-income households

A member of staff shows residents how to use a smart vending machine at the Inner Mongolia Consumer Poverty Alleviation Centralized Procurement and Exhibition Service Center in Hohhot, in Inner Mongolia, on May 31. [Photo/Xinhua]

The Inner Mongolia Consumer Poverty Alleviation Centralized Procurement and Exhibition Service Center was launched in Hohhot, in North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region, on May 31, according to news agency Xinhua.

The service center, located in the Inner Mongolia Exhibition Hall, is expected to become a new engine to help tackle poverty.

At the launch ceremony, the service center signed on-site contracts with representatives of agricultural enterprises and buyers from poor areas.

At present, the center has included a total of 675 kinds of poverty alleviation products in nine categories -- involving 10 leagues and cities in the autonomous region, 38 banners and counties and 179 enterprises and cooperatives – in a bid to help more than 40,000 poor people to increase their incomes.

Among them, a total of seven products in Hohhot were sold through the service center.

Officials said that moving forwards, the center will combine online and offline sales methods to promote poverty alleviation products at government organs, schools, hospitals, enterprises and markets.

They said that this will help ensure that Inner Mongolia's green, organic and high-end agricultural and livestock products will find their way to a broader market.