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Products quality good in rural program

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-12-17 15:04
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The quality of home electric appliances, including televisions, washing machines, computers, among others, is good in China's program to boost consumption in rural areas, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce Yao Jian said Wednesday.

The proportion of unqualified products among the total products sold in the program were less than one in a thousand, Yao said at a press conference in Beijing.

To stimulate rural consumption, the central government rolled out a nationwide policy in February to subsidize farmers by covering 13 percent of the prices of home appliances they bought.

"Individual quality problems in these products are unavoidable, but it is understandable because any common products we buy may have quality problems," Yao said.

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In response to some participant manufacturers lowering quality or settings of some products due to the government's price caps, Yao said the country would raise the price caps in order to guarantee quality, and further expand rural consumption.

According to the ministry, a total of 365 home electric appliances producers and 362 dealers are participating in the program.

By Dec 12, about 81.8 million units of household appliances were sold worth 143.56 billion yuan ($21 billion). Total sales value is expected to reach 150 billion yuan for 2009.