By He Yin, Chinese President Xi Jinping recently sent a congratulatory letter to the 2024 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), in which he announced important measures China will take to expand high-level opening-up in service trade.
He said China is ready to work with all countries to jointly share opportunities, discuss cooperation and promote development in line with the general trend of economic globalization, to contribute to promoting global economic growth and the wellbeing of the people of various countries.
The CIFTIS, having been successfully held for ten years, is a vivid portrayal of the high-quality development of China’s service industry and service trade. In the new era, China has vigorously promoted high-level opening up, accelerating the innovative development of the service industry and service trade, and achieving remarkable results.
From 2012 to 2023, the average annual growth rate of China’s service trade stood at 6.2 percent in U.S. dollar terms, higher than the global average growth rate and the growth rate of China’s trade in goods over the same period. Besides, knowledge-intensive service trade increased to 41.4 percent of total service trade in 2023.
China recently released a set of guidelines to promote high-quality development of trade in services with high-standard opening up, calling for pushing forward institutional opening up of trade in service, facilitating the cross-border flow of resources, advancing innovation and development in key areas, and expanding the international market layout of services trade. These guidelines are expected to further promote high-quality development of service trade and provide more and better Chinese services for the world.
The expanding “circle of friends” of the CIFTIS exactly showcases the enduring charm of China’s service industry and service trade.
The 2024 CIFTIS was themed “Global Services, Shared Prosperity.” Around 800 guests joined the Global Trade in Services Summit, a sub-event of the 2024 CIFITS. Eighty-five countries and international organizations set up exhibition areas. Thirteen of them hosted offline exhibitions at the event for the first time. Over 450 Fortune 500 enterprises and companies taking the lead in their respective industries participated the event, which released over 200 innovative achievements.
Georgia’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Levan Davitashvili said the CIFTIS provides an important platform to promote global service trade exchanges, cooperation, and explore new opportunities.
The rapid growth in service trade reflects China’s determination and efforts to further comprehensively deepen reforms and continuously improve the business environment.
Xi said in the letter that China will promote high-quality development via high-level opening-up, improve institutions and mechanisms for high-level opening-up, innovate and upgrade trade in services, actively align itself with high-standard international economic and trade rules, promote interoperability and compatibility of rules, regulations, management and standards in the service sector, open its service market wider to the outside world in an orderly manner, enhance the functions of the service sector and service trade as platforms of opening up, and forge a market-oriented, law-based and internationalized business environment.
These measures will help expand the supply of high-quality products and services, and create more opportunities for the development of multinational companies in China.
China has become an important force driving the growth of global service trade and has made positive contributions to the building of an open world economy.
In 2023, China’s total import and export of services reached 6.6 trillion yuan (about $934 billion), ranking among the top in the world. With the deepening cooperation in global service trade and service industry, service trade is increasingly becoming a key driver of economic globalization.
Committed to true multilateralism, China will further enhance the level of opening up in free trade agreements, and expand opening up and unilateral opening up to the least-developed countries. China will also strengthen service trade and digital trade cooperation with Belt and Road partner countries.
China will work with all countries and parties to advance inclusive development through openness, promote connectivity and integration through cooperation, foster drivers for development through innovation, and create a better future through shared services.
China is ready to work with all parties to accelerate the innovative development of the service industry and service trade, deepen cooperation in the field, promote high-quality development of service trade via high-level opening-up, and make greater contributions to the prosperity and development of the world economy.
