Source: Economic Daily
With the acceleration of urban-rural integration development and comprehensive rural revitalization, urban infrastructure has been extended to rural areas, public services have been covered by rural areas, and resource elements have flowed to rural areas, and the consumption interaction between urban and rural residents has gradually deepened. Rural areas are showing a trend of consumption upgrading that is converging with cities, and the rural consumer market has also obtained new consumption space generated by industrial transfer and the increase brought by urban residents' consumption in rural areas. In order to cope with the current challenges of insufficient effective demand and overcapacity in some industries, it is necessary to better comply with the trend of convergence of urban and rural residents' consumption structure, and accelerate the excavation and release of the space and potential of rural consumption.
Developing the rural consumer market is an important part of expanding domestic demand. In recent years, the rural consumer market has shown more significant potential for quality improvement and expansion. From the perspective of the trend of consumption upgrading, rural and urban areas have formed a pattern of echelon consumption upgrading. In 2023, the per capita disposable income of rural residents will be 21,691 yuan, an increase of 7.7% over the previous year, and a real increase of 7.6% after deducting price factors. The median per capita disposable income of rural residents was 18,748 yuan, an increase of 5.7 percent, and there was still a big gap compared with urban residents. Some rural areas are not yet saturated with durable consumer goods, and there is a lot of room for demand brought about by rural consumption upgrading. From the perspective of industrial development trend, the adjustment of industrial layout promotes the formation of new consumption forces. In particular, the wide application and penetration of digital technology has accelerated the trend of industrial transfer, attracted more talents to return to their hometowns to start businesses and employment, and at the same time drove consumption, objectively expanding the scale of the rural consumer market, forming a new consumption force, and also having a demonstration and driving effect on rural residents. From the perspective of urban-rural integration, rural areas have increasingly become consumption places for urban and rural residents to integrate and interact. Rural tourism has become a new hot spot in the national cultural tourism market, more and more consumers choose "reverse tourism" and "experiential tourism", and new formats such as rural leisure tourism have accelerated their development, bringing considerable consumption increments to rural areas.
Although the overall situation is conducive to the rapid development of the rural consumer market, there are still some practical bottlenecks and constraints that need to be resolved. The supply of goods, services, and scenarios for rural consumption is insufficient, and it is difficult to meet the needs of local residents and urban residents for rural consumption. The rural market is characterized by few, small and scattered, and the lack of after-sales service such as distribution and installation of many commodities affects the consumption willingness of rural residents. There is a lack of new cultural tourism experience consumer products, imperfect supporting facilities, unobvious characteristics, and there is still a gap between the service facilities and the level of service facilities and the requirements of consumers entering the township. The rural consumption infrastructure is not yet perfect, and the internal and external connections have not been fully realized. There is a lack of logistics information service platform, the degree of informatization of outlets is low, there are shortcomings in the construction of circulation facilities such as cold chain and distribution centers in the county, and the circulation from urban to rural areas is not smooth enough. The urban-rural digital divide restricts the development of digital consumption in rural areas, and continuous efforts are needed to improve the digital literacy and skills of rural population. In addition, the consumption capacity of rural residents is insufficient, the support of consumption policies needs to be strengthened, financial institutions lack enthusiasm in developing rural consumer credit, and the channels for rural residents to improve their consumption capacity are relatively limited.
Activating rural domestic demand and smoothing the urban and rural economic cycle is a systematic project, which requires concerted efforts from all parties to provide solid support for the quality and expansion of the rural consumer market.
The first is to enrich the supply of rural consumption, focusing on improving the county-level consumption network. We will build a consumption network centered on the county and with the city and the countryside, increase investment in the construction of public infrastructure and the transformation of commercial blocks in the county, and strengthen the comprehensive commercial service capacity of the county and the radiation and driving ability of the rural areas. Improve the quality of catering, cultural entertainment, leisure and health care and other consumption places, and create a new type of cultural tourism and commercial consumption gathering area at the county level. Improve the rural e-commerce and county and rural three-level express logistics and distribution systems, accelerate the improvement of the comprehensive level of e-commerce and express delivery into rural areas, and promote e-commerce platforms and enterprises to enrich the supply of products and services for rural areas.
The second is to promote the upgrading of rural consumption and increase subsidy support. In view of the fact that there is still room for incremental growth of automobiles and household appliances in rural areas, it can be considered to promote the coordinated implementation of preferential policies such as the trade-in of consumer goods, new energy vehicles to the countryside, and smart home appliances to the countryside, so as to strengthen the policy effect. To carry out green products to the countryside, places with conditions can increase subsidy support for green building materials and household consumption in rural areas. Accelerate the improvement of refueling, charging, maintenance and other supporting system construction, and encourage enterprises to develop and manufacture more affordable and marketable products for rural areas.
The third is to fully activate rural digital consumption and strive to improve the digital literacy of rural residents. Promote the construction of digital consumption infrastructure in rural areas, and enrich the application scenarios of fifth-generation mobile communication (5G) networks and gigabit optical networks. Support the development of e-commerce, live-streaming economy, online entertainment, etc., in rural areas, and help rural residents adapt to and get used to digital consumption as soon as possible. In the process of building a digital platform, it is necessary to consider its applicability in rural areas, simplify the use process, and reduce the difficulty of operation. Strengthen training to improve the digital skills of rural residents.
Fourth, we should increase financial support and encourage enterprises to lay out the rural consumer market. Guide financial institutions to increase comprehensive financial support for industries such as accommodation and catering, cultural tourism, sports and health in a market-oriented manner. Specifically, it is necessary to support financial institutions to innovate auto finance products and services, increase support for consumer financial services for car maintenance, insurance, repair, beauty and second-hand car transactions, and increase credit support for new and bulk consumption such as rural green and intelligent products and home improvement consumption. Encourage financial institutions to increase their support for business entities in the commerce, culture, tourism and other industries that have entered the township, develop financial products suitable for agriculture, strengthen the supervision of the use and flow of consumer credit, promote a reasonable increase in consumer credit, improve the rural social credit system, and promote the improvement of the quality and expansion of rural residents' consumption.
To fully tap and unleash the potential of rural consumption, it is necessary not only to make great efforts to improve the rural consumption environment, but also to do everything possible to increase the income of rural residents. We can start by strengthening vocational training and entrepreneurship support for rural residents, combine the characteristics of local industries, accurately identify the training needs of rural residents in layers and categories, and strengthen relevant skills training in industries such as live broadcast sales and express logistics, so that training subsidies can directly reach enterprises and trainers. Consideration can be given to tax reductions, loan support, entrepreneurship subsidies and other preferential policies for migrant workers returning to their hometowns to start businesses, setting up special assistance funds for returning migrant workers to start businesses, and setting up entrepreneurship guidance and advisory groups to provide personalized and professional services for entrepreneurs, improve the success rate of entrepreneurship, and fundamentally expand and optimize the rural consumer market.
(Source of this article: Economic Daily Author: Chen Lifen The author is a researcher at the Institute of Market Economy, Development Research Center of the State Council)