NANJING, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese electronics retailer Suning Holdings Group announced Wednesday its new charity strategy highlighting poverty relief.

Zhang Jindong, chairman of Suning, said the company's e-commerce poverty relief project will offer training courses online and offline and set up retail shops to benefit more than 6,000 poor people in 2019.

"Our e-commerce training project has already taken roots in 100 poverty-stricken counties, creating 3,500 job opportunities," Zhang said.

Meanwhile, Suning will set up 500 smart retail shops next year in 300 Chinese universities, offering more than 3,000 part-time jobs for poor college students.

In 2018, the company invested around 500 million yuan (around 73 million U.S. dollars) into poverty-relief projects.

Statistics showed Suning had hired more than 68,000 new employees in 2018. It plans to open 15,000 new shops and create over 80,000 jobs in 2019.

The company also announced it would launch a program to support youth football education. It will help at least ten schools to train 100 PE teachers and foster 100 young potential football players in the following years.

Suning ranked the second, following the telecom equipment giant Huawei, on the latest list of top 500 private enterprises in China, which was unveiled in August. Its subsidiary Suning.com was listed on 2018 Fortune Global 500.

China is committed to lifting its entire poor rural population out of poverty by 2020.

Over 60,000 private enterprises including Suning have taken part in the poverty relief campaign, named "10,000 enterprises assisting 10,000 villages," since it began in October 2015.