Chinese rural residents bought 27.8 million sets of home appliances under the "home appliances to the countryside" program in the first 10 months, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said Wednesday.

The booming sales, worth 50.8 billion yuan (US$7.45 billion), was boosted by the subsidy program China introduced in December 2007.

Under the plan, the government provided a 13 percent subsidy to farmers who buy designated brands of color TV sets, refrigerators and mobile phones in the three agricultural provinces of Shandong, Henan and Sichuan, as well as Qingdao City.

On February 1, 2009, the program, expanded to include nine kinds of appliances, was nationally adopted alongside other campaigns, such as "automobiles to the countryside", to boost domestic consumption at a time when foreign demand for China's exports is slumping.

The program had helped improve the living standards of the rural people and produced remarkable effects on boosting domestic consumption amid the global economic downturn, said Lou Qinjian, vice minister of MIIT, in a seminar on the progress of the program held in Wuhan, Hubei Province.

Lou said the ministry would carry on the subsidy plan and urged home appliance manufacturers to make products tailored to rural people's needs.

The government would adopt other programs, such as "information to the countryside", "broad band to the countryside", aiming to boost domestic demand and lift rural economy.

(Xinhua News Agency November 18, 2009)