People visit the 2023 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) at China National Convention Center in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 2, 2023. (Xinhua/Li Xin)
BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- China is moving faster to open up its service industry wider to the world, with the value of its service trade up 14 percent year on year to 3.6 trillion yuan (about 503.6 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of this year.
Expanding opening up becomes an important approach for China to further develop its service industry. A number of policies have been formulated by relevant authorities at a faster pace and are expected to be implemented soon.
International cooperation between Chinese and foreign enterprises on services are deepened through China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), which has attracted over 900,000 attendees and exhibitors from 197 countries and regions since its establishment in 2012.
-- Growing service industry
China's service industry has maintained steady growth. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the added value of China's service industry in the first half of this year was 34.96 trillion yuan (about 4.92 trillion U.S. dollars), up 4.6 percent year on year and accounting for 56.7 percent of the national GDP.
The growth in China's service industry was attributed to the super large market of the country with a population of 1.4 billion and vast application scenarios. In addition, highly valuing the development of the service industry, China has launched a series of reform measures in recent years to fatten up the industry, said Zheng Wei, associate researcher with China Outsourcing Institute.
The rising service industry has driven the development of service trade. In the first six months, China's service trade reached a historic high of 3.6 trillion yuan, showing a year-on-year increase of 14 percent, showed data from the Ministry of Commerce (MOC).
Looking ahead to the second half of this year, Tang Wenhong, assistant minister of commerce said although the international trade faces severe and complex situation, there will be opportunities for China's service trade. Emerging service trade technologies, formats, and models, as well as the exports of digital cultural services such as digital games, short videos, and online literature will continue to unleash the potential for the service trade development, said Tang.
-- Expanding opening up
Expanding opening up has become an important approach for China to further develop its service industry. A number of policies have been formulated by relevant authorities at a faster pace and are expected to be implemented soon.
An executive meeting of the State Council on August 19 reviewed and approved a set of guidelines on promoting the high-quality development of service trade through high-level opening up, which proposed to fully implement the negative list for cross-border trade in services.
Another document approved at the meeting was the 2024 edition negative list for foreign investment access. According to the negative list, China will accelerate the opening up of sectors such as telecommunication, education and health care services.
These two negative lists are complementary as they cover all patterns of trade in services. They reflect the intensity of the opening up of China's service industry, Zheng said, adding that in the context of sluggish world economy and escalating regional conflicts, China's opening up of more sectors will inject more vitality to the sustainable development of global trade in services and the world's economic growth.
During the process of opening up, platforms such as pilot free trade zones (FTZs) will play a pioneering role. Zhu Bing, director-general of the MOC's foreign investment administration department, said that China's FTZs will take the lead in further opening up related service fields by implementing the two negative lists.
In addition to the pilot FTZs, China will press ahead construction of more opening up platforms. For example, the MOC will launch a new batch of pilot programs to strengthen the opening up and innovation in characteristic consumption sectors such as value-added telecommunication, health care, digital economy, cultural tourism, transportation, and commercial aerospace.
-- Deepening international cooperation
International cooperation between Chinese and foreign enterprises on services are deepened through CIFTIS, which has attracted over 900,000 attendees and exhibitors from 197 countries and regions since its establishment in 2012, according to Tang.
This year's CIFTIS will be held in Beijing from September 12 to 16. More than 80 countries and international organizations will hold exhibitions at the fair, with 13 of them, including Portugal and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations holding independent offline exhibitions for the first time. Over 420 Fortune Global 500 and leading enterprises have confirmed their offline participation in the fair, Tang noted.
A total of 50 foreign-funded financial institutions including HSBC, MasterCard, Ueda Yagi, London Stock Exchange, and German Stock Exchange will participate in the financial services forums of the 2024 CIFTIS to showcase their cutting-edge technologies and products, and seek cooperation opportunities in the Chinese market.
The CIFTIS also offers foreign-funded enterprises an access to the Chinese market. Raizen Group, a Fortune Global 500 company from Brazil, and Carbios, a biotech listed company from France, will make their debut in China at the 2024 CIFTIS. During the event, Raizen will exhibit its ethanol technology and a systematic application solution on sustainable low-carbon transportation for cooperation with China, while Carbios will showcase its globally leading biological recycling plant, PET recycled material technology, and the enzyme decomposition solution for plastic and textile wastes.
(Edited by Su Dan with Xinhua Silk Road, sudan@xinhua.org)
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