Beijing is making full preparations for the upcoming 2022 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), which will accelerate the consumption recovery and upgrading in China, while providing opportunities for foreign companies to integrate into the country's vast services market. “We have basically completed preparations for the event and we're in the final sprint,” Vice Minister of Commerce Sheng Qiuping said at a press briefing. CIFTIS will be held in Beijing from August 31 through September 5. Sheng said that the fair's role as an important platform for opening-up will be given further play this year, with more than 200 events on topics including opening-up and cooperation in the services trade, green development and digitalization. This year, the exhibition area is 26,000 square meters larger than last year, Vice Mayor of Beijing Yang Jinbai said, adding that 1,407 enterprises will participate on-site at the event, up 13.8% year-on-year, of which 446 are Fortune Global 500 companies and industry leaders.
The overall internationalization rate stands at 20.8%, up nearly 3 percentage points year-on-year. Altogether 71 countries, regions and international organizations had confirmed to stage exhibitions or hold meetings at the CIFTIS, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Germany, the UK and the World Meteorological Organization. Ten countries, including the UAE, Switzerland, Italy and Australia, will hold exhibitions at the event in their countries' names for the first time, Yang said. As China is accelerating the implementation of the new development paradigm, the added-value of the country's services sector has soared 1.49 times over the past 10 years, and cumulative trade in services has exceeded USD4 trillion, further cementing the advantage of China's ultra-large market.
In the first half of the year, China's trade in services maintained relatively fast growth, with a total of CNY2.9 trillion, up 21.6% year-on-year. With the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) having taken effect, China is now applying to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPATPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA), in a bid to promote free and convenient services in the region and the digital trade, the Global Times reports.
China has also decided to implement a negative list for cross-border trade in services and to expand opening-up in the services sector. Wang Dongtang, Director General of the Department of Trade in Services and Commercial Services at the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), said China’s trade in services has maintained rapid growth momentum since 2012, with an average annual growth rate of 6.1%, about 3.1 percentage points higher than the global growth rate.
