E-commerce injects vitality into rural development in China (3)

Wang Weike, Party chief at Dongfeng village of Shaji, told Xinhua that between 1,000 and 2,000 out of the 4,000 local residents used to migrate elsewhere to find jobs. However, 90 percent of the migrants have returned home to run online shops. They employ people from nearby county seats and even from the provincial capital of Nanjing. "We farmers have begun to make city dwellers work for us," Wang commented.
According to Wang Xiangdong, head of the information technology research center under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, farmers used to be vulnerable to markets, as information was controlled by big companies. Now farmers have received direct access to information through e-commerce based on the Internet.
Other experts suggest that local governments should take measures to encourage sustainable development of e-commerce in rural areas and build more infrastructure to support the businesses.
Further, it is necessary to provide training courses on e-commerce for farmers, and efforts should be made to improve farmers' awareness of intellectual property rights in the e-commerce environment.