(Economic Observation) China "opens up another path" to stabilize foreign trade and foreign investment
China News Service, Beijing, July 30 (Reporter Li Xiaoyu) Under the epidemic, China's foreign trade still faces challenges. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang presided over an executive meeting of the State Council on the 29th to make arrangements for further opening up and stabilizing foreign trade and foreign investment. Among them, the meeting mentioned that the role of service trade in stabilizing foreign trade and foreign investment should be brought into play.
Starting with service trade, China has the foundation and conditions to stabilize foreign trade and foreign investment, which is also the general trend.
In recent years, with the accelerated transformation of China's economy, service trade has also ushered in rapid development. According to official data, China's service exports have grown at an average annual rate of 6.7% since 2016, 1.2 percentage points higher than the global growth rate of service exports. In 2019, China's service import and export scale reached 785 billion US dollars, ranking second in the world, of which service exports were 283.6 billion US dollars, ranking fourth in the world.
In the past, service trade has been the main source of China's trade deficit, but it has been shrinking since 2017. In the first quarter of this year, China's service trade deficit decreased by more than 100 billion yuan over the same period last year, to 263.74 billion yuan.
As the scale expands, the quality of China's service trade is also improving, and the proportion of knowledge-intensive service trade continues to increase. Official data show that in the first quarter of this year, China's knowledge-intensive service exports increased by 11% to 262.42 billion yuan, accounting for 59.1% of total service exports, an increase of 8%.
In the words of the Ministry of Commerce, the development of China's service trade is progressing steadily and steadily, which is becoming a new bright spot for stable foreign trade.
Currently, service trade has increasingly become the "new blue ocean" of global trade. Since 2005, global trade in services has grown by an average of 5.4% per year, which is faster than trade in goods. According to the "2019 World Trade Report", trade in services has become the most dynamic component of global trade and is playing an increasingly important role in the global economy.
Zhang Qi, a researcher at the Foreign Economic Research Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council of China, said that in the face of new trends in the development of global service trade and new requirements for high-quality economic development, the development of service trade will be further accelerated, and China will be The position in the global value chain is of great significance.
Li Jun, director of the Service Trade Research Institute of the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, said in an interview with a reporter from China News Agency that China's current vigorous development of service trade is also related to the international environment such as rising protectionism and increasing trade frictions. These external pressures act more in the field of trade in goods. In terms of trade in services, developed countries still have a strong willingness to cooperate with China. Under such circumstances, starting with service trade to stabilize foreign trade will help create more cooperation opportunities and stimulate cooperation potential.
The executive meeting of the State Council proposed that the pilot service trade innovation and development should be expanded to 21 provinces and parts of the country, and reforms and explorations should be carried out to expand open areas and improve convenience, including the development of cross-border commercial medical insurance, promotion of Sino-foreign cooperation in running schools, and expansion of technology. The scope of qualifications of import and export operators, and strengthening of international cooperation in tourism and sports under normalized prevention and control, etc., promote a higher level of opening up.
It has been nearly five years since China launched a pilot program for innovative development of service trade. In February 2016, the State Council approved the launch of service trade innovation development pilots in 15 regions including Tianjin and Shanghai; in June 2018, the pilots entered the deepening stage and the scope was expanded to 17 regions including Beijing and Xiongan New District. At present, the service trade in the 17 pilot regions has accounted for more than 75% of the country.
Driven by the pilot projects, new business formats and models of high-growth, high-value-added service trade have accelerated growth, and the transformation and upgrading of industries and trade has also accelerated. According to official data, China's high-value-added, high-tech knowledge-intensive services accounted for 34.7% of imports and exports in 2019, an increase of 7.3 percentage points from when the pilot was launched in 2016; digital service exports accounted for nearly 50% of total exports .
The number, coverage, and open areas of the service trade innovation development pilot are further expanded, which not only has positive significance for stabilizing foreign trade and foreign investment, but also promotes the improvement of the domestic service industry and better meets the needs of people's lives. (Finish)