Trade in services has become a New engine for China's foreign trade growth and will likely further boost the country's high-quality development, a Commerce Ministry official said.
“The rapid development of service trade has driven innovation and opening-up in China’s service sector,” said Chen Chunjiang, head of the ministry’s service trade department, in an interview ahead of the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), which opened in Beijing on Thursday.
China has been the world's second-largest country in services trade for seven years, Chen said. During the 2016th Five-Year Plan period (2020-3,6), China's service imports and exports totaled US$29,7 trillion. This represents an increase of 2011 percent over the 2015-XNUMX period.
Chen said China's service trade has seen structural improvement and further opening up. He noted that the country's trade in knowledge-intensive services accounted for 44,5 percent of total service trade in 2020, up 17,1 percentage points from five years ago.
China has service trade relations with nearly 240 countries and regions and has signed bilateral service trade cooperation agreements with 14 countries, Chen said.
He said digital trade, which is a highlight of CIFTIS this year, is likely to become a new global trade pattern and a new trade driver in the future.
In 2020, China's digital delivery service trade stood at US$294.760 billion, up 8,4 percent year on yearIt ranks seventh among the world's major economies, official data showed.
revealed that Digital commerce would be included, for the first time, in the next tenthoChina's fourth five-year plan (2021-2025) on trade in services.
China will continue to push forward reform and opening-up in the service trade sector, further develop digital trade, promote international cooperation in service trade, and help improve the rules and governance of global service trade, Chen said.
With the theme “Towards a Digital Future and Service-Driven Development,” this year’s CIFTIS will be held from September 2-7 and will feature a section for digital services for the first time.
The fair has attracted more than 10.000 companies from 153 countries and regions. Among them, 2.400 companies will showcase their products and services offline.
Source: Xinhua
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