In response to the national call for educational targeted poverty alleviation and in order to actively promote the development of non-degree education at the Open University of China (OUC), at the Third Rural E-commerce Conference held on 12 October 2018, the OUC granted a plaque for the OUC Research and Training Centre for Rural E-commerce Professionals to Lishui Radio and Television University (Lishui RTVU).

Lin Yu, OUC vice president, presents the plaque to Party secretary and president of Lishui RTVU, Mr. Yang Yunfeng.


The Rural E-Commerce Conference is jointly sponsored by the China International E-Commerce Centre of the Ministry of Commerce, Zhejiang Commerce Department, and Lishui Municipal People's Government. More than 800 guests and representatives, including Fang Aiqing, deputy director of the Economic Committee of the National Committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and former Deputy Minister of Commerce; Wu Xiaodong, deputy secretary of the Municipal Party Committee and mayor of Lishui; Lin Yu, OUC vice president; Zhang Guo, deputy director of the Information Centre of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs; Xu Gongfang, secretary of Zhejiang RTVU Party Committee; and Ye Hong, secretary of the Party Committee and president of Lishui RTVU, attended the conference, along with experts engaging in affairs relating to agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and representatives of e-commerce platforms and representatives from model counties welcoming state-level e-commerce in rural areas.


In recent years, the OUC has incubated and advanced more than 20 non-degree education programmes in public welfare and market sectors and selected non-degree programmes with local characteristics and mature experience from the complete RTVU system to be popularised nationwide on the OUC platform. Lishui, which created the nationally-renowned "Suichang model,” "Beishan model,” and "Lishui experience,” has been praised as the cradle of rural e-commerce development. At the end of 2017, the OUC and Lishui RTVU signed a cooperation agreement to jointly train rural e-commerce professionals for the OUC system and to meet market demands. In order to better train rural e-commerce professionals, Lishui RTVU applied to the OUC to establish the OUC Research and Training Centre for Rural E-commerce Professionals.

After its establishment, the centre will be jointly operated by Lishui RTVU and Zhejiang Xunwei Electronic Commerce Co., Ltd. under the overall planning of the OUC. The centre will combine production, education, and research and integrate relevant businesses, such as scientific research, consulting, and training. Relying on the OUC organisational system that covers China’s urban and rural areas, it will actively explore personnel training models that integrate market demand and public welfare, online and offline methods, and degree and non-degree education. It aims to create a comprehensive personnel training service platform for the rural economic and industrial chain and actively promote Internet-based lifelong education in rural areas, as well as the promotion of agricultural products and the comprehensive development of rural areas.


By Yang Ying,OUC