TapTechNews reported on May 15 that according to the official WeChat account of 'NetChina,' the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently jointly issued the '2024 Key Points for Digital Rural Development'.
The 'Key Points' set clear goals: by the end of 2024, substantial progress will be made in digital rural construction. Digital technology will better guarantee national food security and consolidate and expand the achievements of poverty alleviation. The number of rural broadband access users will exceed 200 million, the internet penetration rate in rural areas will increase by 2%, the online retail sales of agricultural products will exceed 630 billion RMB (convert to approx. 97.8 billion USD), the informatization rate of agricultural production will be further improved, practical talents who understand both agriculture and digital technology will be trained, a number of exemplary and widely influential digital application scenarios will be created, and practical matters that are perceptible to the masses both online and offline will be effectively handled.
TapTechNews summarized the key tasks as follows:
Build a solid foundation for digital rural development. This includes improving the supply capacity of rural network infrastructure, increasing the intensity of rural infrastructure transformation and upgrading, and accelerating the integration and sharing of agricultural data resources.
Safeguard the 'two bottom lines' through digitization. This includes strengthening digital support to ensure food security and enhancing monitoring and assistance measures to prevent a return to poverty.
Promote the development of smart agriculture. This includes strengthening agricultural scientific and technological innovation and application promotion, improving the level of digitization along the entire agricultural industry chain, and using digital technology to deepen social services in agriculture.
Ignite new vitality in county digital economy. This includes expediting high-quality development of rural e-commerce, using multiple measures to promote the integrated development of agriculture, culture, and tourism in rural areas, unleashing the multiplier effect of agricultural data elements, and using digital technology to increase farmers' income.
Promote the revitalization of rural digital culture. This includes accelerating the digitization of rural cultural and cultural relics resources and enriching the digital supply of public cultural services in rural areas.
Improve the rural digital governance system. This includes steadily advancing the informatization construction of rural 'three affairs,' enhancing the digitization efficiency of rural social governance, and strengthening the emergency management capabilities of rural wisdom.
Deepen the inclusive digital services in rural areas. This includes focusing on improving the digital level of rural education, continuously promoting digital health development in rural areas, enhancing the practical effectiveness of rural inclusive financial services, and strengthening information service guarantees for special rural populations.
Accelerate the construction of smart and beautiful villages. This includes strengthening the digitized application of rural living environment improvement and enhancing the efficiency of rural ecological environment protection and supervision.
Coordinated promotion of digital rural construction. This includes strengthening inter-departmental and cross-level coordination, improving a diversified investment guarantee mechanism, cultivating and expanding the rural digital talent team, advancing the standardization construction of key areas, and tellin g the story of the new era of digital rural development.