Eight counties in North China’s Shanxi province will receive subsidy of 148 million ($23.18 million) for rural e-commerce development, 18.5 million for each one, after they were designated as pilot counties by the Ministry of Commerce.

Moreover, in order to identify these counties’ e-commerce development direction, experts from China's e-commerce giant ?Alibaba Group were invited by the province’s department of commerce to train the counties' heads and deputy heads.

A meeting on promoting e-commerce in rural areas was held in Shanxi on August 19. According to the meeting, Shanxi’s initiative on rural e-commerce will include e-commerce economic parks, county-level e-commerce centers, logistics and distribution centers and e-commerce services stations at the village level.

The pilot counties will cultivate a group of e-commerce pilots at township and village levels, as well as a group of online shops. They will also help companies of agricultural products to transform marketing mode.

The cultivation of e-commerce practitioners in rural areas was also included in the province’s plan.