(Economic Observation) Focus on Service Trade Fair: Digital Trade Development Speeds Up, China Shows Development Potential
China News Service, Beijing, September 7 (Reporter Liu Liang) Under the impact of the new crown epidemic, digital trade has shown strong resilience and has become an important engine for the recovery of global trade.
In the future, what are the new development trends of digital trade worthy of attention?
What development potential does China's digital trade have?
From the 2nd to the 7th, the China International Service Trade Fair ("Service Trade Fair") was held in Beijing. Participants discussed the development prospects of digital trade.
On September 3, the 2021 China International Trade in Services Fair was held in Beijing. In the exhibition area of the National Convention Center, Huawei used the production line quality inspection equipment model of the Shengteng full-stack AI software platform to participate in the exhibition.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Hou Yu
"Digital trade is an important product of a new round of technological and industrial revolutions. Vigorously developing digital trade will be the key to winning future digital competition." said Wu Zhengping, director of the Foreign Trade Development Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce of China.
Wu Zhengping said that in recent years, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation have emerged, driving the strong rise of digital technology. In the context of the post-epidemic era, cross-border e-commerce and other services have been widely used, which will help promote economic stability in various countries and promote international Anti-epidemic cooperation plays an important role.
Take cross-border e-commerce as an example. As the global epidemic continues to spread, cross-border e-commerce has filled the gap in traditional offline sales and transactions, helping traditional production, manufacturing and foreign trade companies to better embrace the digital economy and achieve digital transformation and upgrading .
"These companies can better understand and match the needs of foreign consumers and the international market through cross-border e-commerce, and gradually realize the online, intelligent and digitalization of the entire process of corporate R&D, design, manufacturing, marketing, logistics, and after-sales service, and drive the entire Digital transformation and high-quality development of the industry.” said Yi Xiaozhun, former Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization.
In Yi Xiaozhun’s view, the current cross-border e-commerce has become a new channel, new momentum and an important part of the development of global digital trade. The scale of cross-border e-commerce transactions on a global scale continues to grow rapidly, and the proportion of global trade is also increasing. promote.
On September 3, 2021 China International Trade in Services Fair was held in Beijing. In the exhibition area of the National Convention Center, a variety of digital renminbi wallet products displayed at the booth of Bank of China attracted the attention of the participants.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Hou Yu
Looking at the world, China's digital trade is gaining momentum, with its scale and growth rate ranking among the top in the world.
According to the calculations of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the scale of China's digitally delivered service trade reached US$294.76 billion in 2020. During the epidemic, it increased by 8.4% against the trend and accounted for 44.5% of the total service trade, which was an increase of 13.9 from the beginning of the "13th Five-Year Plan" period. Percentage points.
"Digital trade has played an important role in reducing the overall service trade deficit and enhancing the competitiveness of China's service trade." said Wang Bingnan, Vice Minister of Commerce of China.
Wu Zhengping also said frankly that in the face of the changes in the world economy in the post-epidemic era, China needs to further increase the development of digital trade and promote the high-quality development of trade.
"Focusing on the development of digital trade is conducive to enhancing the endogenous development momentum, accelerating the promotion of the international industrial division of labor and the reshaping of the trade pattern, transforming the trade supply situation and value chain, and promoting the continuous revitalization and vitality of the world economy."
"Digital trade is the fastest growing part of global trade, and it is also the most likely trade area in which China will run and lead." According to Wu Zhengping, in the context of the post-epidemic era, digital trade is important for promoting consumption and stabilizing foreign trade. Fulcrum, seizing the power of digital trade, and building a digital trade service system will not only benefit short-term trade growth, but also improve long-term competitiveness, thereby further liberalizing service trade, improving China’s overall opening level, and building a new development pattern with better services .
Opportunities always coexist with challenges.
Participants believe that while significant progress has been made in digital trade, it is also facing some challenges. For example, the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce and digital trade also puts forward urgent requirements for updating global trade rules in the era of digital economy.
Yi Xiaozhun pointed out that the current multilateral trade rules were formulated more than 20 years ago when the WTO was first established. At that time, the use of the Internet in the world was far less common than it is now, and the emerging format of e-commerce is still in its infancy. The rapid development of international e-commerce in the past 20 years has highlighted the lack and lag of global trade rules in this field." The hindrance of WTO multilateral negotiations has also made the global governance of e-commerce more fragmented.
In the face of the current development status of digital trade, China is committed to "complying both internally and externally."
Wang Bingnan revealed that China will constructively participate in the formulation of international rules and safeguard the multilateral trading system.
At the same time, in China, we will also accelerate the construction of top-level design, in-depth research and put forward digital trade work measures suitable for China's national conditions; promote the institutional opening of the digital field; create a digital trade demonstration zone; and, in conjunction with relevant departments, introduce policies and measures to support the national digital service export base , To create favorable conditions for the development of digital trade.
(over)