China issues e-commerce development plan

The total transaction volume of China's e-commerce segment is expected to reach 46 trillion yuan ($7.2 trillion) by 2025, with online retail sales reaching 17 trillion yuan according to the e-commerce development plan for the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25).

The plan was jointly issued by the Ministry of Commerce, Cyberspace Administration of China and the National Development and Reform Commission on Tuesday.

The plan said e-commerce will become an important driving force for boosting the nation's economic power, technological prowess and comprehensive national strength by 2035.

E-commerce will also become a significant engine to promote the efficient allocation of industrial chain and supply chain resources, a vital part of China's modern economic system and a key driver for economic globalization.

The plan called for efforts to support the financing and initial public offerings of enterprises engaged in e-commerce technology services, promote the industrialization of e-commerce technologies as well as provide abundant application scenarios for cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and other digital technologies.

In addition, more efforts should be made to speed up the revision of the Anti-monopoly Law and E-commerce Law so as to prevent and stop monopolistic behavior and unfair competition in the platform economy.