The 2021 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) was held in Beijing between September 2 and 7. Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech via video link at the Global Trade in Services Summit which was held on the first day of the Fair. The CIFTIS was for the first time held in two venues: the Shougang Industrial Park – one of the competition venues for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics – and the China National Convention Center. The exhibition area of the 2021 CIFTIS has increased by 20,000 square meters from last year's event, and the number of companies exhibiting on-site jumped by 6%, Vice Mayor of Beijing Yang Jinbai said at a recent press conference. Moreover, more than 10,000 companies from 153 countries and regions registered for online and on-site exhibitions with more of the world's top 500 firms and overseas institutions attending this year's trade fair.
China pledged bigger and bolder efforts to open up its market for the services trade and expand the country's role as a global services hub with the announcement that a new stock exchange would be set up in Beijing and more digital trade pilot zones would be established. “We will open up at a higher level, by implementing across the country a negative list for cross-border services trade and by exploring the development of national demonstration zones for the innovative development of trade in services,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said in an address to the Global Trade in Services Summit. “We will create more possibilities for cooperation by scaling up support for the growth of the services sector in Belt and Road partner countries and by sharing China's technological achievements with the rest of the world,” Xi added. “We will continue to support the innovation-driven development of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), by deepening the reform of the New Third Board and setting up the Beijing Stock Exchange (BSE) as the primary platform serving innovation-oriented SMEs," Xi announced.
In the first half of the year, the value added of China's services sector reached CNY 29.6 trillion, accounting for 55.7% of total GDP, up from 54.5% a year earlier. In the first seven months of the year, China's services exports rose 23.2% to CNY1.34 trillion, while services imports dropped 4% to CNY1.47 trillion, MOFCOM data showed. The impressive growth in exports resulted in a plunge of 70% in China's services trade deficit to CNY134.75 billion. The country's knowledge-intensive services exports, in particular, amounted to CNY704.47 billion in the January-July period, up 15.4% year-on-year, making up 52.7% of total services exports.
China has shortened the negative lists for foreign investment for four years running and unveiled its first negative list for the cross-border services trade in the Hainan Free Trade Port. The official signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) also means the addition of 22 new services sub-sectors to China's commitment to opening up 100 services sub-sectors under the WTO classification.
