China News Service, Beijing, August 11 (Reporter Li Xiaoyu) China announced on the 11th that it will comprehensively deepen the pilot service trade innovation development in 28 provinces, cities (regions) including Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai, with a period of three years.
China began its pilot service trade innovation development in 2016, and was first distributed in 15 regions including Tianjin and Shanghai. In 2018, the pilot project entered the deepening stage, and the scope was expanded to 17 areas including Beijing and Xiongan New District, and the deadline was extended to June 30, 2020.
According to official data, these 17 pilots have effectively played a leading role and accounted for more than 75% of the national service trade. Driven by the pilot program, China's service exports have grown at an average annual rate of 6.7% since 2016, 1.2 percentage points higher than the growth rate of global service exports.
On August 11, the State Council of China issued a reply on agreeing to comprehensively deepen the innovative development of service trade. The newly announced 28 provinces, cities (regions) comprehensive deepening of service trade innovation and development pilot projects are mainly concentrated in the central and western regions, involving Chengdu, Guiyang, Kunming, Xi'an, Urumqi, etc. This is related to China's emphasis on supporting the innovation and development of service trade in the central and western regions in recent years and promoting trade transformation and upgrading.
According to the official, the comprehensive deepening of the pilot program should focus on supply-side structural reforms, highlight reform first, opening first, innovation first, and high-quality development, in-depth exploration of the service trade innovation development system and mechanism, and create a high ground for service trade development.
In recent years, service trade has become a new bright spot in China's stable foreign trade. Official data show that in the first half of this year, the decline in China's service exports has stabilized, and the decline in imports has increased. The decline in exports is 19.5 percentage points less than imports. This has driven the service trade deficit to fall by 46.1% to 40.71 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 34.01 billion yuan. (Finish)