With a year-on-year increase of half a percent, the online retail transaction mark hit almost 2.8 trillion yuan, or some 450 billion U.S. dollars last year.

　　The numbers were unveiled at an e-commerce expo on Saturday in Yiwu city, Zhejiang Province.

　　Nie Linhai is an official with China's Ministry of Commerce who attended the expo.

　　中国2014年电子商务交易量上升

　　"E-commerce has made new breakthroughs in its application to various sectors, giving rise to a new situation characterized by mass participation in starting new businesses and in innovation. It has become a new engine of economic growth in the country."

　　Regarding the new problems which cropped up during the rapid development of E-commerce, Nie says the ministry is taking action to keep things in line.

　　"We published a program of action at the beginning of the year and have recently mapped out and will publish in the near future a program of action for the application of Internet plus distribution."

　　He says the program will mainly cover policies, regulations and standards, which will help improve the environment for E-commerce.

　　He added the authority will be tough in dealing with copyright infringements and the sale of counterfeit products so as to maintain a good market order.

　　The e-commerce expo was opened on Saturday and is scheduled to last for three days.

　　It was attended by more than a thousand e-commerce enterprises from 10 countries.