China's commitment to innovation in service trade drives global economic recovery

China's commitments to increase openness in the service sector, as well as improve global collaboration and promote innovation-led development, would tap the enormous potential of service trade and provide new momentum to global economic recovery, officials and experts said during the 2023 China International Fair for Trade in Services.

The most dynamic and significant aspect of international trade is trade in services, and these days it is becoming increasingly clear that the world economy is heading towards servitization and digitization, said Vice-Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen on Saturday in Beijing.

New business models, such as digital services, long-distance services, and shared services, have flourished in the wake of the pandemic, and trade in services is now one of the main forces behind globalization, Wang said.

The service sector accounted for 56 percent of China's GDP and contributed 66 percent to its economic development in the first half of this year, according to Wang.

China has continually opened up its service sector, eased market access, benchmarked international economic and trade rules, and encouraged greater foreign investments towards fields such as energy conservation and environmental protection, research and development, and innovation, Wang said.

In particular, the rapid growth of digital services trade is expected to remain the most dynamic component of global trade in the coming years, said Albert Park, chief economist of the Asian Development Bank.

Over the past two decades, the digital services trade has developed significantly faster than other types of trade, which has encouraged innovation and raised productivity, Park said, adding that unlocking the potential of the digital services trade, which is still in its infancy in many economies, should be at the top of the policy agenda.

Siddharth Chatterjee, the UN Development System Resident Coordinator in China, said that the pandemic during the past three years has made people realize that trade in services acts as a bridgehead, which many stakeholders can benefit from.

The growth of trade in services is not a closed-door project, and nations should continue to fortify their international cooperation, in order to achieve coexistence and co-prosperity in a more standardized and equitable environment for trade in services, he added.