The Ministry of Commerce and nine other departments recently issued the Action Plan on Improving the Modern Commercial and Trade Circulation System and Promoting the High Quality Development of Wholesale and Retail Industry. How will the action plan affect wholesale and retail, field dining tables, and commercial circulation? Officials from the Ministry of Commerce and other departments introduced the relevant situation at a special press conference held on the 3rd. What is the background of the action plan? In February 2024, the Fourth Meeting of the Central Committee for Finance and Economics studied the issue of effectively reducing logistics costs for the entire society, emphasizing the improvement of the modern commercial and trade circulation system. Li Jialu, Director of the Circulation Development Department of the Ministry of Commerce, introduced that establishing an efficient and smooth modern commercial circulation system is conducive to optimizing the allocation of resource elements at a higher level and on a larger scale, smoothing the circulation of the national economy, improving circulation efficiency, and reducing logistics costs for the whole society. Approved by the executive meeting of the State Council, the Ministry of Commerce and nine other departments recently issued action plans to deploy the construction of a modern commercial and trade circulation system in the coming period. The action plan focuses on achieving the overall goal by 2027, identifying 4 tasks and 8 key projects. One is to improve the urban and rural commercial circulation network. In the city, implement urban commercial quality improvement projects, transform and upgrade pedestrian streets and commercial districts, build a 15 minute convenient living circle, and construct a hierarchical and classified urban commercial layout; In rural areas, implement the rural market upgrading project and set sub goals of achieving a cold chain circulation rate of 25% and 45% for fruits, vegetables, and meat, respectively. The second is to promote innovation and transformation in commercial circulation. Implement the Retail Innovation and Enhancement Project, accelerate the digital transformation of the retail industry, and develop brand chains and instant retail; Implement the high-quality development project of wholesale industry, promote the transformation and upgrading of commodity markets, create an integrated and open platform ecosystem, and cultivate 100 backbone agricultural product wholesale markets. The third is to optimize the development mode of commercial circulation. Implement supply chain innovation and upgrading projects, develop order production and centralized collection and distribution. Implement the intelligent empowerment project for commercial logistics and promote the standardization rate of pallets nationwide to around 40%. The fourth is to accelerate the integration and development of commercial circulation and opening up. Implement the integration of domestic and foreign trade projects and the cultivation of world-class enterprises in the circulation field, align with international high standard economic and trade rules, guide the integrated development of commercial and trade circulation enterprises, and expand global marketing and logistics networks. Why should we take promoting high-quality development of wholesale and retail industry as the main line and lever to improve the modern commercial circulation system? Seizing the wholesale and retail industry is seizing the 'bull's nose' of building a modern commercial and trade circulation system Li Jialu said that wholesale and retail industry is the core industry of commercial circulation, the main channel for organizing commodity circulation, and an important link that affects the speed, quality, and efficiency of economic operation. It is reported that in 2023, the added value of wholesale and retail industry will be 12.3 trillion yuan, accounting for nearly 1/10 of GDP, absorbing 1/5 of total employment, and operating entities will account for nearly 1/2 of the country's total. It is also an important source of tax revenue. Li Jialu said that accelerating the high-quality development of the wholesale and retail industry mainly starts from two aspects: first, using platformization as the entry point to promote the transformation and upgrading of the wholesale industry. We will focus on establishing a number of commodity distribution centers that match the industrial distribution and national logistics channels, support the transformation of traditional commodity markets, and expand comprehensive services such as e-commerce, innovative display, warehousing and logistics. The second is to use digitalization as a driving force to promote innovation and improvement in the retail industry. Encourage large circulation enterprises to transform traditional retail stores through franchising, digital empowerment, and other means. Support retail enterprises to integrate online platforms, offline supermarkets, and logistics sites, and develop new formats and models such as brand chains and instant retail. Build a modern commercial and trade circulation system, highlighting the shortcomings in rural areas. The action plan focuses on the transformation and upgrading of "thousands of stores in thousands of collections", and deeply implements the county-level commercial construction action. Improve cold chain logistics facilities, promote shared distribution models, and facilitate the entry of agricultural products into cities and industrial products into rural areas. Du Xiaowei, Deputy Director of the Market and Information Technology Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said that we will work with the Ministry of Commerce, the General Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives and other departments to continue optimizing the construction of the cold chain logistics system for agricultural products through the construction of a batch of central finance, the promotion of local finance construction, and the guidance of social capital to build a batch. Actively promote the increase of policy support for origin markets, guide and promote financial institutions to innovate product services, cultivate modern agricultural product distribution teams, improve agricultural product monitoring and early warning mechanisms, and accelerate the transformation and development of origin markets. Ma Jihong, Minister of Economic Development and Reform of the All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, said that we will strengthen the leading and supporting role of circulation backbone enterprises, upgrade and transform county and rural circulation facilities; Promote the operation mode of "smart agricultural product market" and advance the development of the agricultural product market towards digitization and quality; Promote effective integration between the regional and provincial cold chain logistics networks of supply and marketing cooperatives and the national cold chain logistics backbone network; Innovate the production and sales docking mode of agricultural products, vigorously develop new circulation formats and models such as e-commerce, live streaming sales, direct supply and sales, and instant delivery. (New Society)