Why does knowledge-intensive service trade grow against the trend
□ Our reporter Feng Qiyu
In the first 10 months of this year, my country’s total service imports and exports were 3,725.78 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 16.1%, but knowledge-intensive service trade bucked the trend and increased by 8.3%, accounting for a 9.9% increase in service imports and exports.
Why does knowledge-intensive service trade grow against the trend?
This reflects the profound changes in my country's service trade?
"Knowledge-intensive service trade has maintained a high growth rate in recent years, and the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic has brought challenges and also created new opportunities." Guest researcher of the Institute of Service Economics and Public Policy, Tsinghua University, Beijing No. 2 Luo Libin, the deputy dean of the School of Economics of the School of Foreign Languages, said in an interview with a reporter from the Economic Daily that these two factors have made the knowledge-intensive service trade show strong resistance to shocks this year.
"In 2019, my country's knowledge-intensive service imports and exports increased by 10.8% year-on-year, 8 percentage points higher than the overall growth rate." Luo Libin said that this year, knowledge-intensive service trade still maintains a relatively high growth rate, which is also a medium- and long-term development. The trend is that the proportion of tourism, transportation, and traditional service trade related to trade in goods has declined, while the proportion of knowledge-intensive emerging service trade has increased.
"The impact of the epidemic has caused some service trades that were originally in the form of movement of natural persons and consumption in different places to be carried out through cross-border delivery. For example, many international conferences are conducted in the form of online conferences, and overseas education services are conducted through the Internet. The volume of knowledge-intensive service trade has increased rapidly." Luo Libin believes.
At present, the situation of epidemic prevention and control in some countries and regions is still severe, and the supply of goods and services cannot meet market demand.
Li Jun, director of the Institute of International Trade in Services of the Ministry of Commerce, said that in this context, my country's supply capacity advantages are prominent. This advantage is not only reflected in goods trade, but also in service trade, which promotes the continuous growth of service exports.
The epidemic has given birth to new service trade methods and formats, and services such as telemedicine, online education, sharing platforms, collaborative office, and cross-border e-commerce are widely used.
In the first 10 months, the proportion of my country's knowledge-intensive service trade increased, and the import and export of knowledge-intensive services accounted for 44% of the total service import and export, and the structure of service trade continued to be optimized.
Experts said that digital technology has improved the tradability of services and reduced the cost of service trade.
In the future, with the rapid development of digitization, networking, and intelligence, the digitization of service trade will accelerate, and the prospects for knowledge-intensive service trade are promising. In particular, cultural services, software development, and information services are expected to become important forces in promoting service exports. .
"China's knowledge-intensive service industry has unique advantages." Luo Libin analyzed that, on the one hand, with the improvement of service tradeability and the rise of digital trade, China has a cost advantage under the same skill level in certain service trade fields. Competitive advantages are relatively obvious. For example, in recent years, China’s offshore service outsourcing accounted for more than 70% of service trade in emerging sectors; on the other hand, China’s domestic service market growth rate has exceeded the overall economic growth rate, which is conducive to attracting global advantages The entry of service elements into the Chinese market has enabled China to produce greater market effects in the field of knowledge-intensive services.
Luo Libin predicts that service trade will continue the trend of the first 10 months this year.
“The impact of the epidemic has a particularly large impact on the travel service trade. Before the epidemic began, travel services accounted for 36% of the total service trade, and travel services accounted for about 80% of the overall service trade deficit.” The impact of the epidemic on the travel service trade will be The overall service trade has a greater impact and will continue to reduce the service trade deficit.
At present, it is difficult to completely control the overseas epidemic situation in the short term. The security and stability advantages of my country's industrial supply chain will continue to appear, and the trend of stable trade in services will continue.
Relevant experts said that my country should seize the trend of rapid development of digital service trade, guide it through policies, accelerate the digital transformation of enterprises, and accelerate the high-quality development of service trade.
Feng Qiyu