(Economic Watch) How can China's trade in services "go to a higher level"?
China News Service, Beijing, September 3 (Reporter Li Xiaoyu) The scale of China's trade in services has ranked second in the world for eight consecutive years, and despite the rapid development, there are still many shortcomings to be solved.
Analysts believe that to promote service trade to a higher level, China needs to play "three cards".
The first card is digital trade.
Gao Yuning, deputy dean of the Institute of Service Economy and Digital Governance of Tsinghua University, said at the 5th "Belt and Road" Service Trade Cooperation Forum held during the 2022 Service Trade Fair that compared with major developed economies, China's service trade accounts for the proportion of the overall trade. The proportion of trade in services and the proportion of trade in services in the service industry are both low, indicating that the development of trade in services is still relatively lagging behind.
Gao Yuning said that under the background of the shrinking of some cross-border service trade that requires face-to-face communication due to the epidemic, digital trade will become a "must fight" for major economies in the future because of its advantages of penetrating national borders and empowering the entire service trade. , China needs to pay more attention to this.
In recent years, thanks to the advantages of a large market and sound infrastructure, China's digital trade has gained momentum.
Official data shows that in 2021, the total value of China's digital service imports and exports will reach 359.69 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 22.3%, accounting for 43.2% of service imports and exports.
Among them, the scale of net exports reached 30 billion US dollars, more than double the previous year.
Jiang Xiaojuan, member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and vice chairman of the Social Construction Committee, said that although China's digital economy and digital trade are developing rapidly, the proportion of overseas revenue of digital enterprises is still low, and the degree of internationalization is not high enough.
In the future, China should allow more localities and enterprises to pilot data flow across borders, and meet the data flow requirements for all-round cross-border e-commerce development on the premise of ensuring security and privacy.
Zhou Chenghu, president of the China Association for Trade in Services, also said that in the future, we should gradually break the barriers that digital cannot be shared, build a high-level and open digital economy market, and match service trade that better meets diverse needs and experiences, relying on big data, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things. , blockchain, cloud computing and other new technologies, and actively develop telemedicine, online education, collaborative office, and cross-border e-commerce.
The second card is producer services trade.
Jiang Xiaojuan said that high-level producer services are crucial to improving the competitiveness of the manufacturing industry.
Importing high-level R&D services, design services, financial services, business services, marketing services, etc., is an important factor for developing countries' manufacturing industries to enhance their global competitiveness.
At present, major developed economies are using producer services to promote manufacturing upgrades. China "must not miss the opportunity" and should actively conduct more high-level producer service trades to provide support for enhancing the strength of the manufacturing industry.
The third card is to expand the opening.
Yi Xiaozhun, former deputy director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), said that the service industry is the glue that connects all production links in the global value chain.
With efficient and high-quality services in the fields of transportation, logistics, communications, and finance, it is possible for multinational companies to deploy their production chains around the world.
Therefore, China needs to optimize the business environment and encourage foreign investment to continue to enter the modern service industry, which will help China stick firmly to the global industrial chain and value chain and deeply integrate with the world economy.
He believes that China should take the opportunity of entering into the substantive negotiations on the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) to promote the introduction of more institutional opening-up measures in the domestic service industry and digital trade, and support qualified local governments to benchmark against high international standards in economic and trade. The rules will be carried out first and first, and the level of facilitation of cross-border flow of various elements of the service industry will be improved.
During the service trade fair, China has released a clear signal to further open up trade in services.
Wang Shouwen, an international trade negotiator and vice minister of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, said that the implementation of the pilot free trade zone and the national version of the cross-border service trade service list will be accelerated, and market access for cross-border service trade will be further relaxed.
China will also speed up the implementation of the strategy of upgrading the free trade zone, and promote the expansion and opening of trade in services with greater efforts.
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