1、Chinas five-year policy of subsidizing the purchase of home appliances in rural areas came to an end on January 31 with a total government subsidy of 100 billion yuan leading to over 600 billion yuan in spending by rural residents. For more on the story, heres Wang Wei.In December 2007, the central
2、government announced the policy of subsidizing home appliance purchases in rural areas to stimulate consumption and improve the livelihood of the residents.Under the policy, rural residents are entitled to subsidies equivalent to 13 percent of the prices of designated types of home appliances as ref
3、rigerators, television sets, washing machines, computers and air conditioners.In Sheyang County in the developed east China province of Jiangsu, villagers are very happy that almost all the households now own color television sets, refrigerators and washing machines. Shen Jing is an official from Sh
4、eyang County Bureau of Commerce.This stimulus policy has achieved tangible results in our county. The government set a total sum of subsidies of over 100 million yuan, which has eventually pushed our market spending to more than one billion yuan. Its really a remarkable result.In Nanjiang County in
5、southwestern Sichuan Province, the policy led to an overall rural spending of 284 million yuan over the past years, which equals to this poverty-stricken countys yearly revenue.According to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce, a nationwide total of around 300 million home appliances were been s
6、old in rural areas in these years, with a turnover of nearly 730 billion yuan.Mei Xinyu, research fellow at the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation says the subsidy policy was designed mainly to stimulate Chinas domestic market and make up for the losses in the shrinking overse
7、as markets.The policy stimulus in the last five years has indeed played a great role in pushing domestic consumption and helping protect manufacturing firms against the global financial crisis.Helped by the subsidy policy, the ownership of home appliances by rural households has come close to a satu
8、ration point.Statistics by the end of 2007 showed that 95 percent of rural households owned color television sets, 25 percent had refrigerators and the figures rose to 116 percent and 62 percent respectively in 2011.And as the stimulus policy was expired, the government has issued a new subsidy poli
9、cy for energy-saving home appliances to replace the previous subsidy policy.Experts pointed out that urbanization is now progressing from a rate of 50 percent to 70 percent. Emerging new towns will bring another boom in the rural market of home appliances.Yang Dan is electronic product decision consultant at Ministry of Industry and Information.This is because urbanization has changed the rural residents lifestyle and their concepts of spending. All these changes, to some extent, will pave the way for the next upgrading of home appliances.For CRI, Im Wang Wei.
