Promoting services trade fuels global economic recovery

The global economy is facing severe challenges amid the headwinds of anti-globalization and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the supply chains. Promoting trade in services, including digital technology services, is of special importance to global economic recovery.

The China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), which aims to promote deeper cooperation and wider opening-up in services trade and beyond, opened in Beijing on Thursday.

Themed "Towards Digital Future and Service Driven Development," the fair, held both online and offline, taps into the potential of cutting-edge digital technologies and functions as a platform for promoting world economic recovery and growth. Enterprises from home and abroad have flocked to the fair, hoping to seize opportunities in the world's second-largest economy.

In the first half of this year, the added value of China's services industry reached 29.6 trillion yuan (4.6 trillion U.S. dollars), accounting for 55.7 percent of GDP, providing strong support to high-quality services trade development and creating a strong impetus to bolster global trade and investment.

At this year's CIFTIS, China unveiled a slew of new measures to facilitate trade in services.

China will open up at a higher level by implementing across the country a negative list for cross-border service trade and exploring the development of national demonstration zones for the innovative development of trade in services. The country will also scale up support for the growth of the services sector in Belt and Road partner countries and share China's technological achievements with the rest of the world.

The global business community is encouraged by China's commitment and concrete actions to bolster services trade. The further opening up of China's services market will present significant opportunities for global investors who have shown great interest in China.

Self-seclusion leads nowhere and opening up is the way to prosperity. The holding of the CIFTIS this year has shown that China is open and confident about embracing the world, as well as committed to working with the global community to "make its market cake bigger" so that everyone can enjoy and share the benefits.