[Photo/IC]

The Ministry of Commerce recently published a list of model counties (districts) recognized for their outstanding e-commerce growth over the past year. Nine counties from Zhejiang province made the list. 

Statistics show that the nine counties generated online retail sales of 225.64 billion yuan ($31.59 billion) last year, accounting for 13.5 percent of the entire province's online retail sales during the period. 

In the first half of 2019, Zhejiang recorded online retail sales of 798.52 billion yuan, accounting for 16.6 percent of the nation's total. Areas at the county level or below in the province generated online retail sales of 374.05 billion yuan in the same period, taking up 46.8 percent of the province's total. 

Zhejiang now houses 21,000 agriculture-related online stores, generating 39.43 billion yuan from online agricultural products sales last year, up 19.9 percent year-on-year.

The province also saw progress in rural e-commerce industrial agglomeration. E-commerce villages in Zhejiang totaled 1,253 in 2018, up 60.58 percent year-on-year, and the number of e-commerce towns reached 130 during the period, up 68.8 percent.

According to a plan to promote e-commerce in rural areas released by local authorities, Zhejiang will strive to generate 100 billion yuan in online agricultural products retail sales by 2020, and develop 1,600 e-commerce villages with annual online retail sales of more than 10 million yuan.