General

With the steady progress of the recovery process of domestic related industries in the recent period, the service industry has recovered, and the import and export of services has continued to grow rapidly. According to data released by the Ministry of Commerce recently, from January to May this year, my country's total import and export of services was 2,365.36 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22%; of which service exports were 1,151.79 billion yuan, an increase of 26.3%; imports were 1,213.57 billion yuan, an increase of 18.2%. The growth of service exports was 8.1 percentage points higher than that of imports, driving the service trade deficit down by 46% to 61.78 billion yuan. In May, the total import and export of services in my country was 456.28 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.2%.

In the survey, we can see that on the one hand, China's service trade has made great progress compared with before, but on the other hand, there is still the problem of unbalanced and insufficient development. To achieve high-quality development of service trade, we should base ourselves on China's development advantages, cultivate internationally competitive service brands, and create a new service trade model. We should also deepen the opening of the service sector to the outside world and fully tap the potential of RCEP in the service trade field. Expand the scale of trade.

Expand the growth space of service trade

At present, my country has entered a stage of high-quality development, and service trade is facing unprecedented development opportunities. Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Shu Jueting introduced at the press conference that the development of my country's trade in services from January to May this year mainly showed the following characteristics:

First, trade in knowledge-intensive services has grown steadily. From January to May, the import and export of knowledge-intensive services was 988.67 billion yuan, an increase of 10%. Among them, the export of knowledge-intensive services was 560.24 billion yuan, an increase of 13.6%; the areas with faster export growth were telecommunications, computer and information services, and other business services, which increased by 18.5% and 13.2% respectively. The import of knowledge-intensive services was 428.43 billion yuan, an increase of 5.6%; the field of faster import growth was insurance services, with a growth rate of 74.2%.

Second, the import and export of travel services has recovered somewhat. From January to May, my country's import and export of travel services reached 330.84 billion yuan, an increase of 7.7%. Excluding travel services, my country's import and export of services increased by 24.7% from January to May, of which exports increased by 28.1% and imports increased by 20.8%; compared with the same period in 2019, service imports and exports increased by 49%, of which exports increased by 65.2% and imports increased by 32.8% %.

"Under the influence of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, digital technology innovation has continued to accelerate, driving the digital transformation of service trade, which has also played a role in promoting the rapid growth of knowledge-intensive service trade, so the proportion of knowledge-intensive service trade has continued to increase." related scholars said.

Judging from the statistics of last year, the added value of my country's service industry in 2021 will increase by 8.2% year-on-year, accounting for 53.3% of the GDP. In particular, the new generation of information technology has greatly improved the tradability of services, and the continuous integration of manufacturing and service industries has significantly improved the quality and efficiency of service supply, laying a solid foundation for the coordinated development of trade in services.

Cultivate a characteristic service trade base

Gaiya Workshop, located in Suzhou Human Resource Service Industrial Park, China, is a digital enterprise that provides human resource services. The relevant person in charge of the company told reporters that with the deepening of related businesses, the customers currently served cover many overseas companies, providing them with high-end recruitment, headhunting, compensation, consulting and their comprehensive solutions. And there are more and more companies in China expanding cross-border service trade with the support of digitalization, and the fields involved are more and more extensive.

In Xi'an, Shaanxi, the high-tech zone here was listed as the first batch of national cultural export bases in 2018, focusing on the development of high value-added cultural industries such as digital publishing, animation games, creative design, and Internet services, gathering more than 4,000 cultural enterprises. In 2021, the high-tech zone will be ranked second overall in the performance evaluation of the first batch of national cultural export bases, and its cultural export platform will be selected as the best typical case of national cultural export.

Not long ago, in the list of the new round of professional service export bases just announced by my country, Guangzhou Tianhe District and Panyu District were on the list. Guangzhou takes the professional characteristic service export base as the carrier, gives full play to the information, elements and resources of the export base, and continuously improves the scale and intensification level of the characteristic service trade industry. A professional service trade enterprise with independent innovation capability.

Turning to the central Hubei Province, Wuhan Donghu High-tech Zone has made frequent new moves in intellectual property development and export during this period. The relevant person in charge of the Intellectual Property Office of East Lake High-tech Zone introduced that in recent years, the quality of intellectual property creation in East Lake High-tech Zone has continued to improve. At present, more than 400 intellectual property service agencies at home and abroad have settled in East Lake High-tech Zone.

Up to now, the total number of national characteristic service export bases has reached 112, covering 7 fields of culture, traditional Chinese medicine, digital services, human resources, geographic information, intellectual property and language services, involving various administrative regions, functional areas and other platform carriers. It also includes various market entities such as enterprises, universities, and scientific research institutes.

Explore the path of institutional openness

The "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Service Trade" issued by the Ministry of Commerce last year regards the construction of a new development pattern of services as the main direction of the development of service trade, with the theme of promoting high-quality development and the supply-side structural reform as the main line. The development goals of trade during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period: the scale of trade is further expanded, the trade structure is further optimized, the competitiveness is further enhanced, and the institutional environment is further improved; by 2035, the high-quality development pattern of service trade will be fully established.

The interviewed experts said that to promote the high-quality development of service trade in the new era, on the one hand, it is necessary to accelerate the opening of the service industry market to the outside world, especially to raise the standard international economic and trade rules. On the other hand, the negative list system for cross-border trade in services should be promoted nationwide as soon as possible, and institutional arrangements for the liberalization and facilitation of trade in services should be gradually formed.

It is observed that the key content of the RCEP market access field, which came into effect this year, includes trade in services. According to this agreement, RCEP member countries pledged to open more than 100 service trade sectors in terms of trade in services, involving finance, telecommunications, transportation, tourism, research and development, etc., and pledged to fully convert to a negative list system within 6 years after the agreement came into force; the agreement included The market access clauses, transparency clauses, etc., can cancel some restrictions and discriminatory measures affecting service trade in the fields of financial services, telecommunications services, professional services, and natural person movement, and provide a rare development opportunity for strengthening service trade exchanges with countries in the region. Undoubtedly, the level of openness can be further improved.

Some industry insiders predict that making full use of the institutional opening dividend will stimulate the development of new business formats and models such as cross-border e-commerce, Internet finance, online office, online education, online consultation, and online trade fairs, and will also provide opportunities for RCEP coverage areas. Bring more benefits and convenience to people's lives.

However, relevant experts also pointed out that Japan, South Korea and Singapore and other powerhouses of service trade in the region will also use RCEP to vigorously develop my country's service market, and some fields will also face greater competitive pressure. Therefore, export enterprises engaged in service trade should increase technological innovation and model innovation, and form distinctive service exports through the research and development of independent intellectual property rights and key technologies. Overseas marketing network.