General

With the release of favorable factors such as the relaxation of China's inbound and outbound tourism policies, the development of China's service trade has also ushered in a vibrant spring.

Taking tourism services as an example, in terms of outbound tourism, since the resumption of the pilot program for Chinese citizens' outbound team tours on February 6th, 60 countries have been included as Chinese outbound tourism destinations, and the recovery heat of the outbound tourism market continues to rise.

According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, from January to February, China's import and export of travel services reached 209.43 billion yuan, an increase of 39.8%, with exports increasing by 12% and imports increasing by 41.8%.

Regarding this, Zheng Wei, an associate researcher at the China Service Outsourcing Research Center, stated that the rapid growth of service trade under travel, especially the import of travel services, is mainly due to the adjustment of China's epidemic prevention and control policies, and personnel entry and exit management measures have gradually returned to normal. It can be foreseen that as the largest service trade department in China, travel will likely achieve leapfrog growth this year, once again becoming an important engine for promoting the development of China's service trade.

According to the person in charge of the Service Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce, from January to February, the national service trade continued to maintain growth. The total import and export volume of services reached 969.58 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.7%; Among them, service exports amounted to 412.33 billion yuan, a decrease of 11.8%; Import reached 557.25 billion yuan, an increase of 14.7%; The service trade deficit is 144.92 billion yuan, as reported by Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation.

Zheng Wei stated that the development potential of China's service trade in 2023 will be further unleashed, and the total import and export of services this year is highly likely to exceed the 6 trillion yuan mark, setting a new historical high.

At the beginning of 2023, the increase in the proportion of knowledge intensive service trade remains the biggest highlight of China's service trade development.

According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, from January to February, the import and export of knowledge intensive services reached 406.92 billion yuan, an increase of 6.4%, accounting for 42% of the total import and export of services, an increase of 1.9 percentage points compared to the same period last year. According to import and export data, the export of knowledge intensive services reached 243.85 billion yuan, an increase of 11%; The areas with faster export growth are insurance services, financial services, personal cultural and entertainment services, with growth rates of 38%, 19.1%, and 15.8%, respectively. Import and export data shows that the import of knowledge intensive services reached 163.07 billion yuan, an increase of 0.2%; The areas with rapid import growth are personal cultural and entertainment services, telecommunications and computer services, and information services, with growth rates of 24.8% and 15% respectively.

From January to February, the growth momentum of knowledge intensive service trade remained unchanged, accounting for 42% of the total import and export volume of services. It has become an important force in promoting the high-quality development of China's trade and the construction of an economic and trade powerhouse. At the same time, this also indicates that the overall quality of China's service trade development is constantly improving, "Zheng Wei said.

It is worth noting that from January to February, China's service imports continued to maintain double-digit growth, with a total import volume exceeding 550 billion yuan. With the increasing openness of China's high-tech service industry, the import of knowledge intensive services such as personal cultural and entertainment services, telecommunications, computers, and information services has significantly increased, driving the further optimization of China's service import structure. "Zheng Wei analyzed.

What are the opportunities for the current development of China's service trade? Zheng Wei believes that three aspects can be focused on:

Firstly, with the continuous deepening and implementation of RCEP and the release of policy dividends, the potential for service trade cooperation between China and countries in the region will be further stimulated. RCEP will become an important force in promoting the development of China's service trade.

Second, China's trade in services cooperation with countries (regions) along the "the Belt and Road", emerging market countries and developing countries has a small base but huge potential. It is believed that with the continuous progress of high-quality joint construction of the "the Belt and Road", China's service trade partners will become more diversified.

Thirdly, in 2023, China will continue to increase its openness in areas such as foreign investment access in the service industry and cross-border service trade, which is expected to accelerate the development of service trade in four modes: cross-border delivery, overseas consumption, commercial presence, and natural person mobility.