Boost rural spending

There are good reasons to welcome the Chinese government's decision to extend subsidies for farmers' purchase of home appliances and mobile phones to another 10 provinces starting yesterday and to all other provinces from next February.

The success of the pilot program in three provinces and one city since last December bears full testimony to the huge potential of the country's vast rural market.

With a 13 percent discount jointly subsidized by the central and local governments, local farmers have bought more than 3.5 million units of TVs, refrigerators or mobile phones by the end of October, up 40 percent year on year.