Recently, China Post Group Corporation Limited and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has signed a strategic cooperation agreement, which will focus on cooperation in six key areas, including agricultural products circulation, rural consumption, rural public services supply, smart agriculture construction, growth of new types of agribusiness entities and construction of rural financial services system. The cooperation aims to further carry out the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee on the implementation of the rural vitalization strategy, consolidating the progress in poverty alleviation and further revitalize the countryside, accelerating the modernization of agriculture and rural areas.

According to the agreement, the two parties will focus on assisting the rolling out of rural vitalization with promoting high-quality development as the theme and promoting agricultural supply-side structural reform as the main thrust, giving full play to their respective advantages, strengthening coordination and promoting high-quality development of new types of agribusiness entities such as family farms and farmer cooperatives, improving specialized and commercial service system for agriculture, encouraging small household farmers to become involved in modern agriculture, promoting integrated development of rural industries, implementing an action plan for rural construction, improving agricultural quality, effectiveness and competitiveness, and jointly promoting the efficiency and quality of the agricultural sector, making rural areas suitable to live and work in and farmers’ affluence.

In terms of promoting high-quality development of new types of agribusiness entities, the two parties will jointly carry forward the quality improvement of farmer cooperatives, support China Post to promote projects that benefit farmers, jointly and precisely address the comprehensive service demand, continuously explore and innovate new models of socialized rural services, spread the application of farmer cooperatives information service platform to improve comprehensive service efficiency. In terms of serving the upgrade of rural consumption, the two parties will be committed to assisting the integrated urban-rural development and in-depth development of rural e-commerce, further improving the construction of a two-way channel that facilitates the transport of manufactured products to rural areas and agricultural products to the cities. The two parties will also promote the Internet Plus project, facilitating agricultural products from rural areas to cities, cultivate county-level agricultural products industrialization entities with strong competitiveness and explore replicable models. In terms of improving the rural inclusive financing system, the two sides will jointly establish a mechanism of financing the rural real economy effectively and promote the development of inclusive finance. They will carry out the construction of a rural credit system, promoting the effective application of agricultural and rural big data in rural finance to continuously improve the level of rural financial technology and comprehensively improve the efficiency of rural financial services. They will enhance the supply of rural financial products and services, providing support for connectivity of agricultural and rural big data platform with bank-enterprise and bank-government platform. Both sides will increase medium and long-term credit support for investment and financing of agricultural and rural infrastructure, promoting the integrated development of rural industries. They will increase financial services for the purchase of agricultural machinery and equipment, supporting the implementation of policies related to strengthening agriculture and benefiting farmers, including offering subsidies for the purchase of agricultural machinery. In terms of improving rural logistics network, the two sides will speed up the improvement of rural logistics system at county, township, and village levels, improving rural logistics infrastructure conditions, optimizing the network structure and enhancing service capacity and level. They will also accelerate the construction of cold chain logistics facilities for the storage and preservation of agricultural products, improving the operation system. The two sides will jointly promote research on agricultural products cold chain packaging and strengthen the promotion and application of relevant standards and norms. In terms of strengthening rural public services supply, the two parties will jointly promote the project of information entering villages and households, innovating and improving the service efficiency of rural libraries. By taking advantage of the extensive coverage of rural postal outlets, they will promote the joint construction and shared benefits of Yinong information service agencies（that provide agricultural information services for farmers）, China Post convenience service centers and ULE stations, promoting the integration and reuse of resources of both parties, and in-depth integration of various agricultural information services such as agricultural technology promotion, socialized rural services, mail delivering, inclusive finance, e-commerce and convenient bill payment, thus improving the comprehensive service level in rural areas. They will speed up and upgrade express delivery service to the countryside by supporting the deployment of smart letterboxes in the rural areas, increasing the coverage and utilization of self-service facilities, thus improving the equality of urban and rural services. In terms of promoting the docking and application of agricultural and rural big data, the two parties will jointly make a big push on smart agriculture development, accelerate the construction of agricultural and rural big data system, promote the in-depth integration of information technology and agricultural production and operation, and both sides will strengthen the digital and intelligent construction of rural public services and social governance, thus improving supervision capability and level.

Meanwhile, the two parties have formulated a specific cooperation plan to clarify implementation of 9 specific tasks including the expansion of agricultural product sales, the steady increase of agricultural credit, the improvement of county, township and village logistics system, the promotion of high-quality development of new types of agribusiness entities, the increase of investment in rural infrastructure construction, the improvement of rural public service platform, the promotion of docking and application of agricultural and rural big data, doing well in festivals such as “Chinese Farmers’ Harvest Festival”, and support for Xinjiang's construction of village-level agricultural technology comprehensive service stations. Focusing on areas of mutual concern and giving full play to their respective functional advantages, they will continuously promote the work of rural vitalization to a new level.

In the next step, the two parties will establish and improve the work promotion mechanism, strengthen regular communication, and jointly promote the implementation of the agreement, thus ensuring the full play of the important role of finance and social capital.