Key areas of benefits are frequently explained, and the Service Trade Fair highlights the "strong attraction" of the Chinese market
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, September 4th - The Economic Reference Daily published an article on September 4th titled "Key areas of positive news frequently explain the strong attraction of the Chinese market in the Service Trade Fair.". The article states that the 2023 China International Fair for Trade in Services is currently taking place in Beijing. With the theme of "Open Leading Development, Cooperation and Win Win Future", this year's China International Fair for Trade in Services has attracted more than 80 countries and international organizations to hold exhibitions, more than 2400 enterprises to participate offline, and over 500 Fortune Global 500 and industry leading enterprises to gather... The numbers show the international cooperation platform effect of the Fair, as well as the huge attraction of the Chinese market.
At the same time, the benefits of expanding the opening up of service areas such as telecommunications, tourism, law, and vocational exams to the outside world, and orderly promoting the process of cross-border service trade opening up are still being continuously released. Guests and participating companies interviewed by Economic Reference Daily expressed that these open arrangements will further enhance the determination of multinational enterprises to develop and cultivate in China, promote high-quality development of China's service industry and trade in services in the process of opening up, and inject new impetus into the development of the world economy.
In front of the Qualcomm booth located at the National Convention Center, many viewers are experiencing the metaverse experience with dual camera 4K image quality and latency of less than 20 milliseconds through lightweight headsets. The head of Qualcomm's booth told reporters that at the 2022 Service Trade Fair, Qualcomm, Zhonghe Group, and China Mobile collaborated to showcase the 5G Unbounded XR event experience plan, presenting a new path for the construction of "smart factories". "This year, the tripartite cooperation has once again achieved new results, achieving for the first time a network industry integration metaverse application experience based on 5G existing networks. This marks an important progress in the deployment of the industrial metaverse." The person in charge said.
Not far away, there were also crowds of people in front of Intel's booth. This year is Intel's second appearance at the Service Trade Fair. The reporter saw that the exhibition hall is divided into four major areas based on different themes: promoting Moore's Law, promoting digital transformation, building a sustainable and beautiful future, and promoting the popularization of AI, with the theme of "unlimited chip production, supporting the integration of data and reality". It showcases multiple technologies and solutions in retail, PC, data centers, and other fields, as well as award-winning works in the China US Youth Maker Competition and the latest achievements in promoting the popularization of AI.
"This year not only showcased achievements and solutions in multiple fields such as intelligent retail and accelerating the implementation of artificial intelligence, but also announced the latest cooperation with industry partners," said Zhou Bing, Vice President of Intel and General Manager of Corporate Affairs for Intel China.
The above is just a corner of the prosperity of the Service Trade Fair. The scale of participating companies in this year's Service Trade Fair has further expanded, with more than 2400 companies participating offline. The total exhibition area is 155000 square meters, all exceeding the previous one; The internationalization and specialization level of participating enterprises has improved, with 59 countries and 24 international organizations holding exhibitions and conferences, a total of 12 more than the previous one, and an overall internationalization rate of over 20%.
Behind the scale increase is the opportunity brought by the rapid development of China's service industry. At the Service Trade Development Summit Forum held on September 3rd, Wang Shouwen, Deputy Secretary of the Party Group of the Ministry of Commerce, International Trade Negotiation Representative and Deputy Minister, gave a set of data that in the first half of this year, the proportion of the service industry to China's GDP reached 56%, and its contribution to China's economic growth was 66%; In terms of utilizing foreign investment, the service industry accounts for over 70% of China's total utilization of foreign investment; In 2022, China's total import and export of services reached 889.1 billion US dollars, ranking second in the world for the ninth consecutive year.
It is worth noting that this massive market is still accelerating high-level opening up and seeking win-win cooperation. In the comprehensive demonstration zone for expanding the opening up of the national service industry, as well as in conditional free trade pilot zones and free trade ports, a series of favorable factors such as being the first to connect with international high standard economic and trade rules will continue to be released.
The relevant departments are also working hard to promote the implementation of opening-up measures. Wang Shouwen introduced that last month the State Council issued a new foreign investment policy document, proposing 24 policy measures from 6 aspects to further optimize the foreign investment environment. The Ministry of Commerce will continue to implement and refine these policy measures, as well as further encourage foreign investment in the establishment of research and development centers, encourage foreign investment in industrial catalogs, and other policies, guiding foreign investment to increase investment in modern services, energy conservation and environmental protection, research and development innovation, and other fields.
Wang Shouwen further clarified that this year the Ministry of Commerce will launch policy documents including open and innovative development of service trade, further improving policy measures. Next, we will reasonably reduce the negative list of foreign investment access, accelerate the issuance of the national negative list of cross-border service trade, and form a system of gradient opening of China's cross-border service trade. "Our goal is to create a more convenient and efficient ecosystem for service trade and digital trade," he said.
The favorable policies further enhance the attractiveness of the Chinese market. Qualcomm China Chairman Meng Pu stated that this year marks the fourth consecutive year Qualcomm has participated in the Service Trade Fair, and the company attaches great importance to this important platform for showcasing innovation, sharing experiences, and promoting cooperation. He also pointed out that China continues to promote high-level opening-up to the outside world, with clear benefits in key areas such as communication, further enhancing Qualcomm's confidence in the development prospects of the Chinese market.
Qiu Yunping, President of Deutsche Bank Limited, also believes that the Fair for Trade in Services will send a positive signal of openness, cooperation, and win-win outcomes. With the continuous improvement of the business environment in China, the attractiveness of the Chinese market to foreign-funded enterprises is also increasing.
When it comes to the next steps of development, Qiu Yunping said that he is very optimistic about the development prospects of the Chinese market. Deutsche Bank will fully leverage its comprehensive capabilities in cross-border financial services, continuously introduce global advantageous resources and experience, better connect with domestic and foreign capital markets, and create more added value for customers.
Not only that, the attending guests also pointed out that China is continuously promoting the opening up of more service industries, continuously enhancing market attraction, and will also bring new development opportunities to the world economy. "This grand event fully demonstrates the constantly changing global economic landscape and the enormous potential of the service industry." In his speech at the Global Service Trade Summit, Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Greenspan stated that service trade will become a powerful engine to drive global economic growth, create employment opportunities, and bridge the development gap between North and South.
Wang Wei, Director of the Market Economy Research Institute of the Development Research Center of the State Council, stated that facing the future, China will resolutely promote high-level opening up of the service industry, further relax market access for the service industry, improve the level of cross-border service trade opening up, expand the functions of the opening up platform, and strive to build a high standard service industry opening up system. "These efforts will promote countries to share the opportunities of China's open development and inject more stable forces into the world's changes," Wang Wei told Economic Reference Daily.
