Postal service to expand to border villages

Local residents can benefit from subsidized postal service in border villages to further expand the post delivery network in rural areas, a political adviser said.

According to a survey conducted by the State Postal Bureau of China last year, the country now has about 3,000 villages in nine border provincial level regions—the provinces of Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Yunnan and Gansu, as well as the Inner Mongolia, Guangxi Zhuang, Tibet and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions — and two-thirds of the villages have no access to postal services.

The expansion of the postal service network to border villages will play an important role in boosting local economic development, promoting the stability and prosperity of the border areas, making local residents wealthier and allowing people from different ethnic groups to share the fruits of China's economic and social development, said State Postal Bureau official Ma Xulin, also a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee.

The State Postal Bureau of China set a goal last year to ensure most residents in border villages have access to postal services by 2025.

Ma said based on research from China Post, the subsidy includes one-time investment for vehicles and annual operation cost of vehicles and personnel. The vehicles are expected to cost about 160 million yuan ($25.3 million) and the annual operation fee is about 200 million yuan.

Most villages in border areas are scattered in a vast area with few residents, inconvenient transportation infrastructure and prone to natural disasters. The villages are usually far from local post offices with poor roads. These challenges have increased difficulties and costs in expanding the network to those areas, Ma added.

The expansion of the postal service to border areas echoes China's promotion of rural vitalization, improving people's well-being in rural areas.