Alibaba cooperates with the World Bank to study e-commerce poverty reduction

　　From April 26 to 27, 2017, Alibaba delegation was invited to visit the World Bank to exchange the practice of reducing poverty in rural e-commerce and e-commerce in China. During the visit, Alibaba and the World Bank jointly released phased cooperative research results. On April 27, 2017, at the World Bank headquarters, a joint research team released phased research results. Nearly 100 people attended the meeting, including economists and policy research experts from the World Bank, George Washington University, Penn State University, Washington Chamber of Commerce, etc. In addition, some guests watched the conference live broadcast.

　　Alibaba's "Six-Meridian Sword" for Poverty Alleviation

　　At the meeting, Alibaba Group Vice President Fang Jiansheng delivered a keynote speech entitled "Make Rural Better". He introduced: Alibaba regards poverty alleviation as an important part of corporate social responsibility. After years of exploration, it has formed a unique poverty alleviation system, called the "Ali Poverty Alleviation Six-Meridian Sword", including e-commerce poverty alleviation, employment poverty alleviation, financial poverty alleviation, tourism poverty alleviation, education poverty alleviation and health poverty alleviation.

　　As of the end of 2016, Alibaba has established a rural e-commerce service system in more than 500 counties in 29 provinces across the country through rural Taobao projects, including 161 national-level poverty-stricken counties and 129 provincial-level poverty-stricken counties. Rural Taobao opens up logistics, information and capital flows between rural areas and cities, helping them achieve "online goods to the countryside" and "special products to the city". A comparative analysis by Alibaba and the World Bank team found that e-commerce in poor counties that cooperate with rural Taobao is developing faster. In 2016, the online shopping consumption of poor counties that cooperated with rural Taobao was 8.2 percentage points faster than that of poor counties that had not yet cooperated, while the online retail sales were 19.1 percentage points faster than that of poor counties that had not yet cooperated.

　　E-commerce in China is developing rapidly

　　Alibaba and the World Bank jointly found that e-commerce in China's poor counties continues and is growing rapidly. From 2013 to 2016, on Alibaba's retail platform, the annual compound growth rate of online shopping consumption in national-level poverty-stricken counties reached 45% and the annual compound growth rate of online retail sales reached 51%, showing a good growth momentum.

　　Sheng Zhenzhong, a senior expert at Alibaba Research Institute, introduced: "In China, e-commerce connects rural areas and poor areas with big cities, helps them sell specialty products and create a large number of job opportunities. Practice has proved that developing e-commerce to reduce poverty is replicable and sustainable." In recent years, cases of developing e-commerce like Cao County have continuously emerged in many poor areas, such as Wenshan, Guangshan, Henan, Shucheng, Anhui, Pingxiang, Hebei, etc. Local enterprises and entrepreneurs sell specialty products to the whole country and even overseas markets through e-commerce platforms, which not only effectively drives the development of local industries, but also creates a large number of diverse employment opportunities to promote poverty eradication. Data from Alibaba Research Institute shows that in 2016, on the Alibaba retail platform, more than 280 national-level poverty-stricken counties had online retail sales of more than 10 million yuan, of which more than 40 poor counties had online retail sales of more than 100 million yuan.

　　This joint study has received great attention. Carlos Silva-Jauregui, chief economist at the World Bank's Global Poverty and Equity Bureau, believes: "The joint research results of the World Bank and Alibaba are very important, demonstrating the importance of e-commerce in improving the lives of rural populations." In addition, several World Bank scholars said that China is a leading role model in reducing poverty and wants to understand the relationship between China's development of e-commerce and reducing poverty.

　　"The World Bank's main goal is to eliminate extreme poverty, and many extreme poverty is in rural areas. Alibaba uses innovative ways to solve poverty, and rural Taobao projects are very important."

　　China's experience can be learned from many countries

　　"Many Asian countries have good practices in poverty alleviation, but most of them face the problem of 'last mile'. The traditional poverty alleviation method is not very effective for the problem of 'last mile'. We need new solutions." Vitornia Kwakwa, deputy governor of the World Bank, introduced.

　　In China, e-commerce and logistics promote each other, and there are breakthroughs in solving the problem of "last mile" in poor areas. Data from Alibaba Research Institute shows that in 2016, a transaction was reached through the Alibaba retail platform, and more than 1.2 billion parcels were sent and received by poor counties across the country.

　　Fang Jiansheng, vice president of Alibaba Group, said: "After more than two years of practice, we realize that rural e-commerce is of great significance. Alibaba plans to focus on long-term development and will continue to invest ten years in rural e-commerce. We are also very willing to share Alibaba's experience in China with other countries."

　　"China has more than 50 million poor people, and the World Bank is very eager to help them get rid of poverty through technology and e-commerce. We hope to discover the experience of e-commerce in reducing poverty through joint research and share it with other countries."

Thank you for your attention and support to Laogao Crown Club . Please indicate the source of the reprinting website www.shxuanming.net

 Click to register to apply to join the well-known e-commerce network - Laogao Crown Club. Any businesses, Tmall merchants, Taobao Crown Stores, Jinguan Stores, and other e-commerce platform merchants can apply to join!