China continues to boost e-commerce growth

BEIJING - China aims to further expand its e-commerce market and integrate it with more sectors to boost economic growth and employment.

The world's largest and fastest-growing e-commerce market is expected to expand transactions to more than 40 trillion yuan ($5.76 trillion) by 2020, up from 21.8 trillion in 2015, according to the 2016-2020 e-commerce development plan released by the Ministry of Commerce and other government departments.

Online retail sales could reach 10 trillion yuan in 2020 as the country's online population will pass 1 billion, growing by 7.8 percent a year from 2015.

The booming e-commerce market will employ over 50 million people by the end of 2020, according to the plan.

E-commerce will help drive innovation in education, medical care, tourism and other sectors, and become a key engine powering economic transition, the plan added.