Photo taken on Sept. 2, 2020 shows the outdoor exhibition area of the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, capital of China.(Xinhua/Xing Guangli)
BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), which kicked off on last Friday at the China National Convention Center in Beijing, drew wide attention both online and offline.
Themed "Global Services, Shared Prosperity," the six-day fair is the first major international economic and trade event held both online and offline by China since the COVID-19 outbreak.
The event, which focuses on the services trade, fully showcases China's confidence and determination to unswervingly continue its policy of opening-up and increase its role in global trade and international cooperation.
The 2020 CIFTIS consists of one comprehensive exhibition area and eight special exhibition areas. A total of 18,000 enterprises and institutions from 148 countries and regions have registered online and offline to participate in the exhibition and more than 100,000 people have registered for the fair.
The CIFTIS is the world's largest comprehensive exhibition in the field of global trade in services and one of China's three major exhibition platforms featuring the country's opening-up, with the other two being China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) and China International Import Expo (CIIE).
Zhou Jian, founder of Shenzhen-based company UBTECH Robotics Corp, said that the company developed three types of smart anti-epidemic robots within 20 days, which helped the company attract more orders in the first half of the year.
Zhou expressed the hope to find new partners and ink new cooperation agreements at the fair to further expand the business of the company at home and abroad.
Photo taken on Sept. 3, 2020 shows the outdoor exhibition area of the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, (Xinhua/Yin Dongxun)
The fair is also the first large-scale international event Deutsche Bank participated in Beijing since the COVID-19 outbreak, said Yin Zhen, deputy general manager of Deutsche Bank's local business in China, adding that the event will create new business opportunities for companies in various fields.
Deemed as the most active part in international trade, services trade has broad development prospects and a far-reaching impact on the world economy, as the global economy is undergoing a new round of major development and changes, said Fan Shijie, deputy director-general of the department of trade in services and commercial services at the Ministry of Commerce.
In recent years, China has been quickening the pace to vigorously deepen reforms and opening up in the service sector.
Data showed that China's services imports and exports in 2019 totaled 5.4 trillion yuan, ranking second in the world for six years in a row.
Services trade has become a new engine in China driving high-quality development of foreign trade and higher-level opening up, said Li Jun, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce.
(Edited by Yang Yifan with Xinhua Silk Road, yangyifan@xinhua.org)
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