By He Yin, People’s Daily
Under the theme of “Towards Digital Future and Service Driven Development”, the 2021 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) kicked off in Beijing on Sept. 2. The event serves as a roomy platform through which countries can collectively advance service trade, provide market opportunities and development dividends for foreign countries, and infuse more confidence and vitality into world economic recovery.
Openness and cooperation in the service sector is becoming an increasingly important driver for development. The CIFTIS, an event hosted by China to share development opportunities with the entire world, pool wisdom, and facilitate extensive cooperation, has appealed to enterprises and organizations from across the world.
In his speech at the Global Trade in Services Summit of the 2020 CIFTIS last September, Chinese President Xi Jinping suggested working together to foster an open and inclusive environment for cooperation, unleash the power of innovation in driving cooperation forward and promote mutually beneficial cooperation, demonstrating China’s breadth of vision and sense of responsibility in promoting the development of service trade and making the fruits of service trade growth accessible to all.
Participants’ huge enthusiasm for the CIFTIS reflects their recognition of China’s bright economic prospects and the great importance they attach to China’s market opportunities. As a major global player in service trade, China saw its value added of the service sector reach 29.6 trillion yuan ($4.58 trillion) during the first half of the year.
In recent years, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation has sprouted, giving impetus to digital technologies, boosting in-depth integration of industries, and sparking the vibrant growth of service economy.
Over the past year or so, services related to such fields as telemedicine, online education, sharing platform, collaboration system, and cross-border e-commerce have been widely used amid COVID-19 outbreaks, playing a significant role in stabilizing the economy of countries and promoting international anti-pandemic cooperation.
A special section for digital services has been added to this year’s CIFTIS for the first time, bringing consumers closer to products and technologies featuring service innovation, especially new services catering to digital economy.
This year’s CIFTIS also includes a thematic exhibition on health services for the first time. By showcasing scientific and technological achievements made in combating the virus, the exhibition is expected to inject new impetus into global cooperation in the fight against the pandemic.
The CIFTIS has signaled China’s firm determination to open its door wider to the rest of the world.
In this age of economic globalization, countries share economic interdependency and intertwined interests like never before, Xi said in his speech at the 2020 CIFTIS, noting that treating each other with sincerity and pursuing shared benefits holds the key to state-to-state relations in today’s world.
By building platforms including the CIFTIS and the China International Import Expo, China aims to promote policy exchange and experience-sharing, foster diverse partnerships with foreign governments, international organizations, business associations, and enterprises, and eventually make more fruits from practical cooperation benefit people in different countries, according to Xi.
