英闻天下——338 Incentive for Home Appliance Purchase Ends

 　　China's 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 1 of 100 billion yuan leading to over 600 billion yuan in spending by rural residents. For more on the story, here's Wang Wei.

 
　　In December 2007, the central government announced the policy of subsidizing home appliance purchases in rural areas to stimulate 2 consumption and improve the livelihood 3 of the residents.
 
　　Under the policy, rural residents are entitled to subsidies 4 equivalent to 13 percent of the prices of designated types of home appliances as refrigerators, 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 Sheyang County Bureau of Commerce.
 
　　"This stimulus 5 policy has achieved tangible 6 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. It's really a remarkable 7 result."
 
　　In Nanjiang County in 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 county's yearly revenue.
 
　　According to statistics from the Ministry 8 of Commerce, a nationwide total of around 300 million home appliances were been sold in rural areas in these years, with a turnover 9 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 China's domestic market and make up for the losses in the shrinking overseas markets.
 
　　"The policy stimulus in the last five years has indeed played a great role in pushing domestic consumption and helping 10 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 saturation 11 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 policy for energy-saving home appliances to replace the previous subsidy policy.
 
　　Experts pointed 12 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 13 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, I'm Wang Wei.