Fujian's first rural taobao project was inaugurated on December 20 in Youxi county, Sanming city, a result of cooperation between the Fujian Provincial Department of Commerce and Alibaba Group, an e-commerce giant in China.

The project aims to offer business opportunities to rural people through taobao.com, the largest online platform in the country.

Liu Depei, deputy director-general of the Department of Commerce, said that Alibaba Group initiated the project in October, and planned to invest 1.6 billion dollars (10 billion yuan) to set up 1,000 e-commerce operation centers at county level and 100,000 e-commerce stations at village level over three years in a bid to build a rural e-commerce network covering both the cities and countryside in China.

Top officials from the Department of Commerce visited Alibaba Group and signed cooperation agreements, making Fujian the third province to launch a rural taobao project in China, after Zhejiang and Guangdong.

"The countryside needs to catch up and even surpass cities in the revolution triggered by e-commerce," Zhang Yong, COO (Chief Operating Officer) of Alibaba Group said. As he explained, the rural market has become a new engine of the e-commerce industry. A report from the Ali research center showed that the share of consumption on taobao in rural areas has increased from 7 percent in Q2, 2012 to 9 percent in Q1, 2014.

Rural e-commerce is also critical in the development strategy of the Department of Commerce of Fujian Province. Liu revealed that the department will cooperate with Alibaba Group to start up new e-commerce projects, hold some county-level e-commerce summits and release related policies to support the industry's development in 2015.

Youxi, a county in Sanming, located in the central part of Fujian, regards e-commerce as a chance to upgrade its industries, and is dedicated to promoting the industry's development by offering favorable policies. Till now, it has realized broad band and 3G internet coverage of all villages, which could be a solid foundation for e-commerce. After assessment by the Department of Commerce and Alibaba Group, Youxi was chosen to be the place piloting the taobao project in Fujian.

Zhang Changping, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of Youxi, said that the country government will properly use the policies released by the provincial government, and explore its superiority, work closely with Alibaba Group, to promote its e-commerce industry and information technology development, and realize the upgrading of industries and increase farmers' income.

By Peng Juan from China Daily Fujian Bureau