Promoting the Release of Greater Potential in Service Trade (People's Current Review)
Increasing the openness of the service industry is conducive to introducing various high-quality production factors, promoting the upgrading and upgrading of the domestic service industry, and accelerating the construction of a modern industrial system
In September of the golden autumn, the 2023 China International Fair for Trade in Services was successfully held in Beijing. Service industry enterprises from around the world gathered together to discuss cooperation, showcasing a splendid 155000 square meter exhibition. New products, technologies, and services emerged one after another, and summit forums gathered global development consensus.
China's hosting of the Service Trade Fair is to support trade liberalization and economic globalization through practical actions, demonstrating China's unwavering determination to expand opening up.Since its establishment in 2012, the Fair has attracted over 600000 exhibitors from 196 countries and regions, making positive contributions to promoting the development of China's and global service trade.
Service trade is an important component of international trade, and the service industry is an important field of international economic and trade cooperation. In 2022, China's total import and export of services reached nearly 6 trillion yuan, reaching a historic high in scale. In the first seven months of this year, China's service trade continued to maintain a growth trend, with a year-on-year increase of 8.1% in total import and export of services. It is worth mentioning that the import and export of knowledge intensive services increased by 11.7% year-on-year, accounting for 43.2% of the total import and export of services. The added value and technological content of service trade further increased. The service industry and service trade have become new engines for China to expand its high-level opening-up to the outside world.
At this year's Service Trade Fair, "openness", "cooperation", and "innovation" were high-frequency words. For the first time, the "Investment in China Year" Service Industry Expansion and Opening up Promotion Conference was held, with 11 national comprehensive pilot provinces and cities participating in exhibitions and negotiating cooperation to attract more multinational companies to invest and develop in China. The first United Nations convention in the maritime industry named after a Chinese city, the Beijing Convention on the Judicial Sale of Ships, has been officially signed, promoting further prosperity and development of international shipping and trade. A batch of specialized, refined, and innovative achievements in fields such as chip technology, quantum measurement and control, satellite remote sensing, artificial intelligence, and digital healthcare have been showcased. The service industry is an important component of the national economy. Increasing the openness of the service industry is conducive to introducing various high-quality production factors, promoting the upgrading of the domestic service industry, and accelerating the construction of a modern industrial system.
It should also be noted that as external demand weakens, risks and challenges increase, and rule competition becomes more prominent, the development of China's service trade still faces certain pressures and challenges. In the context of fierce competition in international trade and investment, only by continuously consolidating the foundation of the service industry and improving the level of openness in the service sector can we promote service trade to a new level and help build a strong trading country. The Ministry of Commerce recently announced that it will promote the release of the national version and the pilot free trade zone version of the negative list of cross-border service trade, initially forming a system for China's cross-border service trade gradient opening, upgrading the construction of national service trade innovation and development demonstration zones, further promoting the upgrading and expansion of characteristic service export bases, and creating new growth points for service exports. By fully leveraging the platform functions of expanding openness, deepening cooperation, and leading innovation, and continuously deepening international cooperation in service trade, we can continuously expand our circle of friends in service trade.
Looking ahead to the future, the development of China's service trade contains opportunities. Internationally, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation has deepened, further enhancing the tradability of services and promoting innovation in service formats and models. Looking at the domestic market, a complete manufacturing system, ultra large scale market advantages, and continuously improving independent innovation capabilities of enterprises will create favorable conditions for China to enhance its competitiveness in service trade. Under the promotion of high-level opening-up policies, China's service trade will continue to maintain a stable and positive trend, injecting new impetus into promoting the effective improvement of quality and reasonable growth of quantity in the economy.
