China National Radio:
My question is for Mr. Ma of the State Post Bureau. The express delivery sector has grown rapidly in recent years. However, there are problems like low service quality, stereotyped development mode and unbalanced regional development. What will you do to promote a healthy and balanced development? Thank you.
Ma Junsheng:
As you say, China's express delivery industry has grown rapidly. The number of parcels being handled, ranking first in the world, has achieved growth of more than 50 percent for six straight years. Of the 70 billion parcels handled by express delivery service worldwide every year, 30 billion are in China.
Why has there been such rapid growth? There are three reasons.
The first reason is reform of the postal system, which greatly unleashed productivity, stimulated market demand and narrowed the gap between demand and supply.
Another reason is coordination with the e-commerce industry. Every day, nearly 100 million parcels are delivered in China. Of them, over 60 percent are from the e-commerce industry. Through coordinated development, the two sectors provide excellent service to the Chinese people.
The third reason for growth is innovation, which has created a good service mode. Just now, Mr. Yang talked about improving the business performance by lowering costs. The express delivery industry has made noticeable progress in this regard. Ten years ago, a parcel usually cost 30 yuan. Today, it's fallen to only 12.8 yuan, one-fifth the world average level. Since we are able to handle 30 billion parcels at a much lower price and improved service, it's no wonder people love to use our service.
Of course, there are problems, such as low service quality, stereotyped development mode and unbalanced regional development, as you mentioned. We are aware of these, and have been working to solve them. Specifically, we have taken five measures as follows.
First, boosting the growth of market entities, especially high-level, large-scale companies. In the world, only 14 express delivery and postal companies are able to handle over 10 million parcels a day. Six are based in China. We have been doing well in terms of quantity, so we now shift our focus to quality as the next step.
Second, promoting innovation and coordination, making wider use of information technologies, and creating more innovative business and service modes, and better management, so as to diversify our services and products.
Third, promoting business development in rural areas, the western regions and overseas to improve our service network. Today, express delivery service is available in 80 percent of rural areas. In 2020, the figure is expected to reach 100 percent. We will open new channels to help move more industrial products to the countryside and bring more agricultural products to the cities. We will strive to stimulate rural consumption.
Fourth, building a comprehensive transportation system and promoting wider use of planes, automobiles and boats to improve delivery efficiency.
Fifth, carrying out various projects to intensify oversight and supervision.
These are the five aspects we will focus on in the future. I firmly believe that, by 2020, we will establish a highly efficient and reliable express delivery system that can cover every corner in China and reach overseas markets.