There is still a gap compared to major data trading countries, and China ranks fourth in terms of digital delivery service trade exports
On the afternoon of the 2nd of the 2023 China International Fair for Trade in Services, the first results conference was held, and Beijing Second Foreign Languages Institute and Social Science Literature Publishing House jointly released the "Blue Book of Service Trade: China International Service Trade Development Report". The Blue Book shows that digital trade has become an important part of China's trade growth, and the export growth rate of digital trade is relatively fast. In 2022, the scale of China's digital delivery service trade reached 2.5 trillion yuan. However, China ranks fourth in the export volume of digital delivery services among countries, and there is still a significant gap compared to major digital trade exporting countries.
The Blue Book points out that the rapid development of digital technology has enhanced the vitality and efficiency of international trade, greatly expanding the development space of service trade, and is regarded by countries as the future driving force for the development of service trade.
According to the data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development database over the years, the Blue Book research group calculated the annual growth rate of the world's major digital trading powers in terms of digital delivery service trade exports from 2013 to 2021. The results showed that the annual growth rate of China's digital delivery service trade exports was 11.33%, the United States was 4.98%, and Germany was 5.70%.
In terms of the export value of digital delivery services, according to UNCTAD statistics, in 2021, the export value of digital delivery services in the United States was 613.012 billion US dollars, the United Kingdom was 353.37 billion US dollars, Germany was 242.231 billion US dollars, and China was 194.844 billion US dollars.
From the proportion of China's digital delivery service trade exports to the world, it accounted for 3.46% in 2013 and 5.11% in 2021. During this period, in 2017, China's share reached 3.62%, surpassing Japan's share of 3.59% for the first time, and has since been leading Japan.
China's 14th Five Year Plan clearly proposes to accelerate the development of digital trade. The Ministry of Commerce and 24 other departments issued the "14th Five Year Plan for the Development of Service Trade" in 2021, encouraging the acceleration of the digitalization process of service trade through various means.