Service sector's opening-up to accelerate

China will accelerate the expansion of the service sector's opening-up, a practical action meant to inject more certainty and stability into the world in light of intensifying global unilateralism and protectionism, the Ministry of Commerce said on Monday.

The ministry has issued a guideline for accelerating the implementation of a comprehensive pilot program to expand the opening-up of the service sector that includes another nine cities such as Dalian, Liaoning province and Ningbo, Zhejiang province.

Previously, the pilot program had been carried out in three batches across 11 provinces and cities around the country. The latest round will be fully launched in all 11 provinces and cities at once, without distinguishing regions and task batches, the commerce ministry said.

The guideline proposed 155 pilot tasks in 14 areas, including supporting the open development of telecommunications services and related digital industries, improving the level of opening-up in the medical and healthcare sector, and promoting international cooperation in finance, cultural and tourism sectors.

The measures include supporting foreign doctors to open clinics in China and encouraging the short-term practice of overseas medical professionals and technicians. In addition, China will work to attract more overseas insurance companies, sovereign funds and pensions to provide investment, financing and technical services for green projects, and allow foreign-invested travel agencies to operate outbound tourism businesses in China.

Ling Ji, vice-minister of commerce, said the US' "reciprocal tariff" policy has seriously impacted the international trade order and stability of global industrial and supply chains, and China has proposed measures to further strengthen its opening-up to better cope with the situation.

"China's new measures demonstrate its unwavering determination to expand the opening-up, and its firm support for economic globalization and maintenance of the multilateral trading system," Ling said.

China's services sector boasts vast growth potential. In the first quarter, China's actual use of foreign investment amounted to 269.23 billion yuan ($36.94 billion), and the services sector accounted for more than 70 percent of the total, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.

"The nine cities newly included in the pilot program have a relatively high degree of opening-up in the services sector, and each city has its own unique industries. After the successful pilot, their innovative achievements are foreseen to have greater value for replication and promotion on a larger scale," said Bai Ming, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation in Beijing.