JD.com to build drone airports to promote rural logistics services

Liu Qiangdong, founder and CEO of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com, has announced plans to build 185 drone airports in Sichuan Province in order to promote logistics services in rural areas, ithomes.com reports.

Liu has made the revelation as part of a speech at the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Zhejiang Province, on December 4, 2017.

Liu Qiangdong, founder and CEO of JD.com, delivers a speech at the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Zhejiang Province, December 4, 2017. [Photo: IC]

"Due to the high costs of logistics, agricultural products sell at higher prices in cities while industrial products sell at higher prices in remote rural areas," said Liu.

Liu Qiangdong said JD.com is already using a large network of drones in Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces, and plans to use drones to deliver agricultural products from rural areas in Sichuan to cities across the country within 24 hours, cutting the logistics costs in rural areas by 50 to 70 percent.

This is not Liu's first move aimed at poverty alleviation. On November 28, 2017, the internet entrepreneur was inaugurated as honorary chief of Pingshitou Village in Fuping County, Hebei Province, one of the most impoverished areas in the region.

In a post on his microblog, Liu set a target to have a tenfold increase in the village's average household income within five years, with all the villagers being lifted out of poverty.