The 14th Five-Year Plan for the development of e-commerce

First, the background of the introduction of the Plan

The Party Central Committee and The State Council attach great importance to the development of e-commerce.   The Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee pointed out that we should develop the digital economy and unswervingly build a digital China. As the largest, most active and most dynamic new business model and driving force in the digital economy, e-commerce is a very important part of the blueprint of the new development pattern, and will play an important role in unblocking the domestic cycle and promoting the domestic and international double cycle.

During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, China's e-commerce has made remarkable achievements: e-commerce transaction volume increased from 21.8 trillion yuan in 2015 to 37.2 trillion yuan in 2020; National online retail sales will reach 11.8 trillion yuan in 2020, and China has become the world's largest online retail market for eight consecutive years. In 2020, online retail sales of physical goods will account for nearly a quarter of the total retail sales of consumer goods, and e-commerce has become one of the main channels of consumer consumption. The number of e-commerce employees has exceeded 60 million, and new forms and models of e-commerce have created a large number of new jobs and positions, becoming an important "social stabilizer". These data fully show that e-commerce has been fully integrated into all areas of production and life in China, and has become an important force to improve the quality of people's lives and promote economic and social development. At the same time, the development of e-commerce in China is still facing the problems of non-standard, inadequate and unbalanced, platform enterprise monopoly and unfair competition, the core competitiveness of enterprises is not strong, the external macro environment has undergone complex and profound changes, and the high-quality development of e-commerce opportunities and challenges coexist.

Starting from the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan", four phases have been prepared so far, which has played an important role in guiding the development direction of China's e-commerce and promoting the rapid and healthy development of e-commerce. As a key special plan in the business field during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the "Plan" in-depth study and judgment of the current situation and trend of China's e-commerce development, analysis of opportunities and challenges, and clarification of the "14th Five-Year Plan" period of e-commerce development direction and tasks, is an important basis for the behavior of market players and relevant government departments at all levels to perform their duties.

Ii. The preparation process of the Plan

 First, solicit opinions and suggestions widely, and carry out written surveys of local governments, online questionnaires of enterprises, and "vision survey of E-commerce Development 2025" successively, laying a solid mass foundation for the preparation of the "Plan"; The second is to carry out in-depth investigation and research, overcome the adverse impact of the epidemic, adopt a combination of online and offline methods, held more than 10 research symposia, in-depth research dozens of representative enterprises, and laid a solid practical foundation for the preparation of the "Plan"; The third is to steadily promote the subject research, combing out nearly 30 key topics in combination with the actual work, commissioning 19 units to carry out special research, forming a 410,000 word research report, which has accumulated a profound theoretical foundation for the preparation of the "Plan"; Fourth, overall coordination and cohesion, repeatedly solicited the opinions of 32 relevant departments, gathered wisdom and pooled efforts, and fully paid attention to the close connection with national strategic deployment, important special plans and policy documents in the preparation process, laying a solid foundation for the implementation of the "Plan". The "Plan" took more than a year to compile and was officially issued in October 2021.

3. Key considerations in the Plan

(1) Further clarify the new mission of e-commerce in the new era of national economic and social development.  It gives e-commerce a new mission of promoting "high-quality development of the digital economy" and helping "achieve common prosperity", clearly puts forward the "four important" development goals of e-commerce during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, and describes the vision goal of 2035 with "Five become".

(b) Establish a new e-commerce development principles and policy guidance. The Plan adheres to the idea of people-centered development and clearly puts forward the new principles of "four adherence". In particular, the "adhere to innovation, standardized development" in the first place, further continue the "13th Five-Year Plan" in the "development and standardization" requirements, uphold the promotion of development and regulatory norms in the two-pronged approach, emphasize innovation-driven, encourage new models and new forms of business to flourish at the same time, adhere to the bottom line thinking, promote fair competition, strengthen anti-monopoly and prevent disorderly expansion of capital.