Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Promoting Online and Offline Interaction to Accelerate Innovation, Development, Transformation, and Upgrading of Commercial Circulation

Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Promoting Online and Offline Interaction to Accelerate Innovation, Development, Transformation, and Upgrading of Commercial Circulation

People's governments of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, all ministries and commissions of the State Council, and all directly affiliated institutions:

　　In recent years, new generation information technologies such as mobile internet have accelerated development, and technology-driven business model innovations have emerged continuously. Online and offline interaction has become one of the most dynamic economic forms, a new channel to promote consumption, and a new highlight for innovation and development in commercial circulation. Vigorously developing online and offline interaction is of great significance for promoting the transformation of physical stores, fostering business model innovation, enhancing new economic growth drivers, and serving mass entrepreneurship and innovation. To implement the decisions and deployments of the State Council, promote online and offline interaction, and accelerate innovation, development, transformation, and upgrading of commercial circulation, the following opinions are hereby proposed with the consent of the State Council:

　　I. Encourage Innovation in Online and Offline Interaction

　　(1) Support business model innovation. Embrace and encourage business model innovation to unleash the vitality of the commercial circulation market. Support physical stores in displaying and selling goods and services through the internet, enhancing offline experience, delivery, and after-sales services, strengthening online and offline interaction, promoting integration of online and offline, continuously optimizing consumption paths, breaking scene limitations, and improving service levels. Encourage physical stores to establish all-channel, all-day interaction with consumers via the internet, enhance experiential functions, and develop experiential consumption. Encourage consumers to establish direct contact through the internet, engage in cooperative consumption, and improve the allocation and utilization efficiency of idle resources. Encourage physical commercial circulation enterprises to strengthen intra-industry and inter-industry division of labor and cooperation through the internet, improving the level of social collaboration. (Ministry of Commerce, Cyberspace Administration, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, local people's governments at all levels)

　　(2) Encourage innovation in technology application. Accelerate the application and promotion of modern information technologies such as mobile internet, big data, Internet of Things, cloud computing, Beidou navigation, geographic location services, and biometric identification in business processes including authentication, transactions, payments, and logistics. Encourage the construction of business public service cloud platforms to provide basic commercial technology application services for small and micro enterprises. Encourage the implementation of full-process traceability and inquiry services for commodity circulation. Support the deep application of big data technology in the business field, using business big data to carry out mid- and post-event supervision and innovate service methods. Support commercial network information systems in improving security prevention technology levels and incorporating user personal information protection into the network security protection system. (Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, National Development and Reform Commission, local people's governments at all levels)

　　(3) Promote product and service innovation. Encourage enterprises to use the internet to reverse integrate various production factor resources and create personalized products according to consumer demand. Deeply develop the market for wearable and intelligent products based on online and offline interaction. Encourage third-party e-commerce platforms to cooperate with manufacturing enterprises, optimize supply chain and service chain systems through e-commerce, and develop service markets based on internet equipment remote monitoring, operation and maintenance, and technical support. Support the development of third-party services such as platform development, online store construction, agency operation, online promotion, information processing, data analysis, credit certification, management consulting, and online training for enterprises and entrepreneurs, providing professional support and guarantees for innovative development of online and offline interaction. Encourage enterprises to acquire, convert, and cultivate stable customer groups through virtual communities and other means. (Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Cyberspace Administration, local people's governments at all levels)

　　II. Stimulate the Vitality of Physical Commerce Development

　　(4) Promote reform and development of the retail industry. Encourage retail enterprises to change their business models, support physical stores affected by online models to adjust and reorganize, increase the proportion of self-operated goods, strengthen independent brands and customized products, and deeply develop chain operations. Encourage retail enterprises to use internet technology to promote digital transformation of physical stores, enhance store scene-based, three-dimensional, and intelligent display functions, and carry out omni-channel marketing. Encourage large physical stores to continuously enrich consumer experiences, transform into intelligent and diversified commercial service complexes, increase facilities such as catering, leisure, entertainment, and culture, shifting from primarily goods sales to equal emphasis on "goods + services." Encourage small and medium-sized physical stores to leverage their proximity to consumers, improve convenience service systems, and increase additional convenient services such as fast food, bill payment, online order with in-store pickup, and community delivery. Encourage internet enterprises to strengthen cooperation with physical stores, promote the integration of online communication, customer attraction, and precise marketing advantages with offline real experience, brand reputation, and logistics distribution advantages, and promote flat organizational management, intelligent facilities and equipment, online commercial entities, data-driven commercial objects, and standardized service operations. (Ministry of Commerce, National Development and Reform Commission) Support new agricultural business entities in connecting with e-commerce platforms, effectively linking production and demand information, and promoting the integration of online marketing and offline circulation of agricultural products. Encourage agricultural production material distributors to develop e-commerce and promote online marketing of agricultural production materials. (Ministry of Agriculture, National Development and Reform Commission) Support retail enterprises in combining online and offline channels to explore international markets and develop cross-border online retail. (Ministry of Commerce)

　　(5) Accelerate transformation and upgrading of the wholesale industry. Encourage traditional commodity trading markets to use the internet to strengthen traditional functions such as transaction matching, commodity distribution, price discovery, and information exchange, and enhance new functions such as logistics distribution, quality standards, financial services, research and development design, exhibition and display, and consulting services. Encourage traditional wholesale enterprises to apply internet technology to build supply chain collaboration platforms, extend to production and retail links, and achieve transformation from commodity wholesale to supply chain management services. Support the development of brand alliances or the construction of brand joint procurement platforms to gather brand resources and reduce procurement costs. Deepen e-commerce applications, guide commodity trading markets to transform into e-commerce parks and logistics parks. Centered on e-commerce and modern logistics, promote optimization of resource allocation and improvement of circulation efficiency in bulk commodity trading markets. Encourage online industry information service platforms to transform into comprehensive trading service platforms, organize offline exhibitions, negotiation meetings, and trade fairs around customer needs, and provide comprehensive vertical and in-depth services for industry development. (Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, National Development and Reform Commission)

　　(6) Change the development mode of the logistics industry. Vigorously promote logistics standardization using internet technology, focusing on standardization of express parcels, pallets, technical interfaces, and transport vehicles, promoting information sharing and interconnection, and facilitating multimodal transport development. Vigorously develop smart logistics, using Beidou navigation, big data, Internet of Things, and other technologies to build intelligent logistics channel networks and construct intelligent warehousing systems and distribution systems. Leverage the real-time, efficient, and precise advantages of internet platforms to reasonably allocate and integrate offline transport vehicles, warehousing, and other resources, improve logistics resource utilization efficiency, achieve real-time tracking and online, visual management of transport tools and goods, and encourage the development of "non-vehicle carriers" relying on internet platforms. Promote urban joint distribution models and support the construction of comprehensive logistics information service platforms. Encourage enterprises to build overseas warehouses in key export countries and promote the development of cross-border e-commerce. (National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Transport, Postal Administration, National Standardization Administration)

　　(7) Promote convenience in the life service industry. Vigorously promote the online presence of life services such as food, accommodation, transportation, tourism, and entertainment, facilitate the combination of online transactions and offline services, and provide personalized and convenient services. Encourage catering enterprises to develop online ordering, group buying, and delivery services. Support accommodation enterprises in providing online room booking services. Encourage passenger transport enterprises, tourist attractions, and cultural performance units to provide online ticket booking, seat reservation, and ticket delivery services. Support industries such as housekeeping, laundry, repair, and hairdressing to carry out online appointment and home service businesses. Encourage internet platform enterprises to gather idle offline resources and develop cooperative consumption services such as homestays, purchasing agents, and carpooling. (Ministry of Commerce, Tourism Administration, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Transport)

　　(8) Accelerate innovative development of business services. Encourage exhibition enterprises to build online display and trading platforms, encourage online enterprises to serve physical exhibitions, create normalized communication and docking platforms, and improve the intelligence and refinement level of exhibition services. Support the hosting of the China International E-commerce Expo to discover, guide, and promote innovation. Improve the networking level of business consulting services. (Ministry of Commerce) Improve the level of intellectual property rights protection services. (Intellectual Property Office) Actively explore new service trade development modes based on the internet, cultivate new service formats, promote facilitation of service trade, and enhance the internationalization level of business services. (Ministry of Commerce)

　　3. Improve the Modern Market System

　　(9) Promote the Intelligent Commercialization of Cities. Deepen the construction of smart cities, encourage cities with conditions to explore building interactive online and offline experiential smart business districts, support the construction of wireless network infrastructure in business districts, improve functions such as intelligent traffic guidance, crowd flow management, information push, mobile payment, consumer interaction, and logistics distribution, and improve the consumer experience evaluation, information security protection, merchant credit accumulation, and consumer rights protection systems in business districts. Implement demonstration projects for characteristic commercial streets, and encourage localities to cultivate a batch of multifunctional, multi-format commercial streets with industrial, operational, and cultural characteristics based on internet technology. (Ministry of Commerce, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, People's Bank of China, State Administration for Industry and Commerce, local governments at all levels)

　　(10) Promote the Modernization of Rural Markets. Carry out comprehensive demonstrations of e-commerce entering rural areas, promote e-commerce enterprises to develop rural markets, and build a two-way circulation system of agricultural products entering cities and industrial products going to the countryside. (Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Finance) Guide e-commerce enterprises to connect and cooperate with existing networks and advantageous resources such as rural postal services, express delivery, supply and marketing cooperatives, the "Ten Thousand Villages and Thousand Towns Market Project," and transportation. Upgrade and transform traditional rural commercial outlets, and improve the county, township, and village three-level rural logistics service network. Accelerate the construction of a national public platform for agricultural product business information services. (Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Transport, Postal Administration, Supply and Marketing Cooperative Headquarters, National Development and Reform Commission) Vigorously develop agricultural product e-commerce, guide counties and cities in major production areas of specialty agricultural products to open local specialty pavilions on third-party e-commerce platforms. (Ministry of Commerce, local governments at all levels) Promote the demonstration of "production base + community direct distribution" for agricultural products, drive the development of contract farming, and improve the standardization level of agricultural products. Accelerate the pace of information access to villages and households, strengthen the construction of village-level information service stations, enhance offline experience functions, and improve the e-commerce application capabilities of new agricultural business entities. (Ministry of Agriculture)

　　(11) Promote the Integration of Domestic and International Markets. Encourage the use of internet technology to achieve seamless connection between domestic and international markets, promote the reasonable matching of domestic capital, technology, equipment, and production capacity with international resources and demand, focusing on the "Belt and Road" strategy and international capacity and equipment manufacturing cooperation, to build an integrated domestic and international market. (Ministry of Commerce, National Development and Reform Commission, Cyberspace Administration) Deepen integrated customs clearance reforms in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Yangtze River Economic Belt, "Belt and Road," Northeast China, and the Pan-Pearl River Delta four provinces and regions (Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan), and promote nationwide integrated customs clearance management. (General Administration of Customs) Establish and improve a regulatory service system adapted to cross-border e-commerce, and improve trade facilitation levels. (Ministry of Commerce, General Administration of Customs, Ministry of Finance, State Taxation Administration, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, State Administration of Foreign Exchange)

　　4. Improve Policy Measures

　　(12) Promote Streamlining Administration and Delegating Power. Except for laws, administrative regulations, and decisions of the State Council, all localities and departments shall not add administrative approval items for online and offline interactive enterprise market access. Adjust and improve market access qualification conditions according to the characteristics of online and offline interaction, accelerate the opening of resources and information sharing in the public service sector. (Relevant departments are responsible according to their functional divisions) Simplify the registration procedures for market entities' domicile (business premises), promote reforms such as one license for multiple addresses, one address for multiple licenses, and cluster registration, providing convenient registration services for chain enterprises, online retail enterprises, and express delivery enterprises. (State Administration for Industry and Commerce)

　　(13) Innovate Management Services. Adhere to promoting development, regulating order, and protecting rights simultaneously, gradually standardize during development, and better develop under regulation. Pay attention to regulatory methods to prevent improper measures from causing emerging business formats to lose their development environment. Innovate management concepts, systems, and methods, establish management systems and service mechanisms adapted to the needs of e-commerce development, promote online and offline interaction, and fully play the fundamental and leading role of circulation in economic development. Carry out business big data construction and application, serve regulatory innovation, and support e-commerce product brand promotion. (Ministry of Commerce, State Administration for Industry and Commerce, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine) Without changing the main land use subject or planning conditions, various market entities using existing real estate and land resources to develop online and offline interactive business may keep the original land use and rights type unchanged for five years; if changes are necessary after five years, handle according to relevant regulations. (Ministry of Land and Resources)

　　(14) Increase Financial and Tax Support. Fully leverage the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, highlight the leading role of social capital in promoting online and offline integrated development. At the same time, utilize fiscal funds to guide and promote e-commerce entering rural areas. (Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce) Create a fair tax environment for online and offline enterprises to compete equally. (Ministry of Finance, State Taxation Administration) Online and offline interactive development enterprises that meet the recognition conditions of high-tech enterprises or technology-advanced service enterprises may enjoy relevant tax incentives according to current tax policies. (Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Science and Technology, State Taxation Administration) Actively promote online tax services and electronic invoice applications. (State Taxation Administration, Ministry of Finance, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Commerce)

　　(15) Increase Financial Support. Support online and offline interactive enterprises to introduce angel investment, venture capital, private equity investment, issue corporate bonds, company bonds, asset-backed securities, and support online and offline interactive enterprises at different development stages and characteristics to list and finance. Support financial institutions and internet enterprises to innovate financial products and services legally and compliantly, accelerate the development of internet payment, mobile payment, cross-border payment, equity crowdfunding financing, supply chain finance, and other internet financial businesses. Improve the legal system of payment service markets, establish a normalized exit mechanism for non-bank payment institutions, promote survival of the fittest and resource integration. Improve the internet financial credit system. (People's Bank of China, National Development and Reform Commission, China Banking Regulatory Commission, China Securities Regulatory Commission)

　　(16) Regulate Market Order. Create a fair competitive environment for entrepreneurship and innovation and a standardized and honest market environment, strengthen intellectual property and consumer rights protection, prevent unfair competition and monopolistic behaviors that exclude or restrict competition. Promote the construction of a social credit system, strengthen the disclosure of business entity information, and promote the online disclosure of administrative licenses and penalties within 7 working days. Establish and improve e-commerce credit records, include them in the "Credit China" website and the unified credit information sharing and exchange platform, and improve e-commerce credit management and information sharing mechanisms. Effectively strengthen integrated online and offline supervision and mid- and post-event supervision, improve interdepartmental linkage prevention mechanisms, and severely crack down on illegal and criminal activities such as manufacturing and selling counterfeit and inferior goods online, intellectual property infringement, pyramid schemes, and fraud. (Ministry of Commerce, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Public Security, State Administration for Industry and Commerce, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, State Food and Drug Administration, Intellectual Property Office)

　　(17) Strengthen Talent Training. Encourage various enterprises, training institutions, colleges and universities, and industry associations to cultivate high-end and urgently needed talents who comprehensively master business management and information application knowledge. Support regions with conditions to build continuing education bases for e-commerce talents and carry out practical e-commerce talent training. Support training related to online and offline interactive innovation, introduce high-end compound e-commerce talents, and provide services for the innovative development of online and offline interactive enterprises. (Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, local governments at all levels)

　　(18) Cultivate Industry Organizations. Support industry associations to formulate industry service standards and service specifications according to the characteristics and development needs of their fields, advocate the establishment of sound business rules, and promote industry self-discipline development. Utilize the role of third-party inspection, testing, and certification institutions to ensure the quality of goods and services, supervise enterprises to comply with service commitments, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, enterprises, and individual entrepreneurs. (Ministry of Commerce, State Administration for Industry and Commerce, General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine)

　　All regions and departments should strengthen organizational leadership and overall coordination, formulate specific implementation plans based on local and departmental realities, clarify work division, and implement work responsibilities. The Ministry of Commerce shall work with relevant departments to provide business guidance and supervision, and report major situations to the State Council in a timely manner.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　General Office of the State Council
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　September 18, 2015