The service industry is an important indicator of a country’s economic development. Recently, the State Council formally approved the "Overall Plan for Deepening the Pilot Project of Innovative Development of Service Trade," and agreed to deepen pilot innovation and development of service trade in 17 provinces and cities (regions), and called for in-depth exploration of institutional mechanisms, policy measures, and open paths to adapt to the innovative development of service trade. Speed ??up the optimization of the business environment, maximise the vitality of the market, and create a new height of service trade system.
The Ministry of Commerce recently held a special press conference focusing on deepening the experimental work of innovative development of service trade. Lu Guoyi, Director of the Department of Trade Services and Business Services of the Ministry of Commerce, introduced at the press conference that the pilot projects for innovative development of service trade in China had achieved positive results in the previous two years. Driven by the pilot, the country’s service exports have grown rapidly. The new mode of new trade in services has been accelerated. The pilot regions combined their own advantages to stimulate the development potential of service trade, and the new modes of new services such as cloud services, big data marketing, and language services have become the characteristics and highlights of service trade.
The reporter learned that since the beginning of this year, the growth of China’s service trade has accelerated and the structure has been optimized. This has driven the service industry to become a powerful support for China’s economic growth. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Commerce, from January to April, China’s total service import and export reached 1.67 trillion yuan, an increase of 11.9% year-on-year, faster than the 8.9% increase in the trade in goods during the same period. At the same time, service exports continued to grow faster than imports.
Although the growth rate of service exports is significant, it must also be noted that for a long time, China’s service trade has also been characterized by “the development has been rapid, short-board has always existed, and the growth space has also been very large”. In 2017, the deficit in China’s trade in services approached 1.8 trillion yuan, reaching 56% of the trade surplus of goods. In the long run, the trade surplus of goods will not be able to support the trade deficit.
"The deficit in China's trade in services is due to the fact that the low-end service industry occupies the main body and the overall development lags behind. Compared with the level of service trade in developed countries, there is a large gap between them." Bai Ming, deputy director of the Institute of International Market Research of the Ministry of Commerce, accepts "China's trade." In an interview with the newspaper, the reporter stated that China is becoming bigger and stronger international trade, and service trade and goods trade must be carried out simultaneously. With the transformation of high-end manufacturing and going abroad, the modern service industry must go hand in hand in order to go long-term.
At present, the development of China’s open economy has entered a new phase. Strengthening and expanding “China services” will help build a modern industrial system with efficient operation, complete facilities and coordinated development, and promote efficiency reform. In the course of expanding opening up, it will become the main theme of the service industry in the coming period. “With the continuous development of economic globalization, whether it is the world or China, service trade has become increasingly important in the overall development of foreign trade and even the economy.” For the next step, the service industry is opening up to the outside world. We will expand the scope of service trade liberalization and increase the opening up of service trade in several ways: First, the major deployments made by the State Council in recent years regarding the opening up of the service industry, especially those concerning the opening up of the service industry, will be piloted in pilot areas first; It is based on the open experience gained from the Pilot Free Trade Zone and the opening up of the service industry's comprehensive pilot program. It is the first to be promoted in pilot regions. The third is to explore the cross-border service trade market for cross-border deliveries, overseas consumption, and natural person movement patterns other than commercial presence models. The measures will be the first to introduce open and convenient measures in the areas of finance, telecommunications, travel, engineering consulting, and legal services.
In fact, in the service sector, this year, China has successively introduced a series of opening measures. This includes launching a number of open initiatives in the fields of telecommunications, tourism, engineering consulting, finance, and law. At the same time, it explores and perfects the access system for service trade under cross-border and overseas consumption models, and gradually removes or relaxes restrictions and measures for the import and export of goods. , Flow of talent to provide customs clearance and visa convenience.
The relevant person in charge of CITIC Environmental Water (Aktau) Co., Ltd. stated that the cooperation between the company and Kazakhstan in infrastructure construction has been carried out for many years. “With advanced technology and business models in the entire industry chain of water treatment, we participate The development of a number of water resources projects in Kazakhstan, as a globally-located enterprise, we will focus on investment in the contracting and design of projects including infrastructure and industrial construction, expanding the business market in water and environmental protection fields, and driving the development of related service industries in China and Kazakhstan. The person in charge further pointed out. It is understood that the company's business scope covers the traditional water treatment, comprehensive management of water environment and hazardous waste solid waste and recycling economy industry and other service sectors. As China's service sector is further opened up to the outside world, it is of great significance for the group companies such as CITIC to carry out international market development and drive Chinese services to “go global”.
At present, the country's policy of developing higher-level open economy and forming a new pattern of higher reform and opening up has provided sufficient endogenous power for the development of service trade and created a positive external environment. "After a new round of reform and opening up, we have gained the opportunity to enter the international market. At the same time, we can use the advantages of high-end international services to make up for our shortcomings and achieve mutual benefits and win-win results," said Bai Ming.