By Professor of Marketing Chiang Jeongwen. Co-authored with Chen-Lin.

China’s online retail sales grew 49.7% to RMB 2.79 trillion last year, prompting Ma Jiantang, head of the National Bureau of Statistics, to comment: “This is where our hope lies.” It was by far the most high-profile signal that China’s leaders, perhaps helped along by the successful IPO of Alibaba and many other Internet companies, recognize the potential of China’s 780 million online users. It is a sign that they embrace the benefits of the Internet which is expected to create 46 million new jobs in China by 2025, according to a July 2014 report by New York-based McKinsey & Co.

Ma’s comments are in line with Premier Li Keqiang’s introduction, at the 12th National People’s Congress in 2013, of a new Internet+ (Internet Plus) policy for the country. The goal: to “integrate mobile Internet, cloud computing, big data and the Internet of Things with modern manufacturing to encourage the healthy development of e-commerce”.

But can Internet+ fuel China’s economy and make up for slowing industrial production? Read more on Forbes.com