This photo taken on Sept. 1, 2023 shows an interior view of the China National Convention Center in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Hao Jianwei)
BEIJING, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The 2023 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), which is one of the world's largest and most comprehensive fairs for trade in services, kicked off in Beijing on September 2, highlighting China's endeavor to open the country's services sector wider and expand international cooperation in service trade.
Themed "Opening-up leads development, cooperation delivers the future", the 2023 CIFTIS features numerous overseas participants and abundant offline activities.
Over 80 countries and international organizations participated in the event. More than 2,400 enterprises got involved in offline exhibitions and over 500 Global Fortune 500 companies and industry-leading enterprises showcased their accomplishments, demonstrating the Chinese market's great attraction for foreign investment.
At the same time, a series of measures for expanding the opening up of services sector and orderly advancing the process of the opening up in cross-border services trade are being released.
Participants noted that those measures will further strengthen the determination of multinational enterprises to expand their footprints in China, promote the high-quality development of China's services industry and trade in services, and inject new impetus into the global economy.
Covering an exhibition area of 155,000 square meters, this year's event is bigger in scale and boasts a greater number of international exhibitors compared with the last time.
At the booth of Qualcomm China during the 2023 CIFTIS at China National Convention Center, visitors flocked to enjoy "metaverse" experience through lightweight head display devices.
Intel China, which has participated in the fair for the second time, showcased its technologies and solutions in the areas of AI, personal computers, data centers and smart retail sales, award-winning works from the China-U.S. Young Maker Competition, as well as latest achievements in promoting the popularization of AI.
This year, Intel not only showcased its achievements and solutions in multiple areas, but also announced cooperation with many Chinese partners at the fair, said Zhou Bing, vice president of Intel China.
Wang Shouwen, Vice-Commerce Minister said that China's services sector accounted for 56 percent of the country's GDP, contributed 66 percent to China’s economic development in the first half of this year.
According to Wang, 70 percent of foreign investment in China went to the service sector. In 2022, China's total import and export of services reached 889.1 billion U.S. dollars, ranking second in the world for the ninth consecutive year.
Noting that the country's State Council unveiled last month guidelines containing 24 specific measures to further optimize China's foreign investment environment and beef up foreign investment inflow, Wang said that the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) will appropriately shorten the negative list for foreign investment access, accelerate the introduction of the negative list for cross-border trade in services, and form a opening-up system for China's cross-border trade in services.
The country’s ultimate goal is to create a more convenient and efficient ecosystem for services trade and digital trade, Wang added.
Favorable policies further strengthened China's foreign investment magnetism.
Meng Pu, chairman of Qualcomm China, pointed out that the company has participated in the fair for four consecutive years and attaches great importance to this vital platform to showcase innovation, share experience and promote cooperation.
The company is bullish on the Chinese market due to the country’s consistent efforts in advancing high-level opening up, Meng said.
The fair sends a positive signal of opening up, cooperation and win-win results, and the Chinese market is becoming increasingly appealing to foreign enterprises, said Peter Qiu, president of Deutsche Bank (China) Co., Ltd.
Deutsche Bank is optimistic about the prospects of the Chinese market and will give full play to its competitive edges in cross-border financial services to better connect the Chinese and foreign capital markets and create more added value for customers, Qiu said.
Participants also pointed out that China continued efforts to expand the opening up of the services sector and enhance its market attractiveness, which will bring new development opportunities to the world economy.
The fair will become a powerful engine to promote global economic growth, create employment opportunities, and bridge the North-South development gap, said Rebeca Grynspan, secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) at the Global Trade in Services Summit of the 2023 CIFTIS.
Wang Wei, director general of Institute of Market Economy, Development Research Center of the State Council, said that in the future, China will unswervingly further open up its services sector, relax the sector’s market access, advance the opening up in cross-border services trade , expand the function of opening-up platforms and strive to build a high-standard opening-up system for the services sector.
All those efforts are aimed at sharing the opportunities of China's opening up and development with other countries to inject much-needed certainty into an unpredictable world, Wang said. (Edited by Yang Yifan with Xinhua Silk Road, yangyifan@xinhua.org)
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