China advances opening-up of service sector to unleash growth potential

This photo taken on Sept 1, 2023 shows an interior view of the China National Convention Center in Beijing, capital of China. [Xinhua]

"We will widen access to China's services sector, advance the opening up in cross-border services trade in an orderly manner, improve the level of standardization of services trade, and steadily expand institutional opening up," Xi said.

Xi emphasized that the country will share the outcomes of the Chinese modernization drive with the rest of the world by vigorously boosting domestic demand, accelerating the building of a robust domestic market, taking the initiative to increase the imports of quality services, and encouraging more exports of knowledge-intensive services.

"We will lend new impetus to global development with the opportunities generated by China's vast market, and offer more and better Chinese services to the world through high-quality development in a bid to increase the sense of gains of people around the world," Xi said.

The CIFTIS has sent positive signals of China's persistence in economic globalization and embodied China's consistent commitment to sharing development opportunities with the rest of the world, said Jack Chan, chairman of EY China, adding that it plays an important role as a platform for promoting global economic recovery.

Visitors look at a sandbox model of "smart city" solution at the environmental services exhibition of the 2023 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, capital of China, Sept 2, 2023. [Xinhua]

China's continuous opening up and optimization of its business environment and active promotion of the digitalized and green development of trade in services greatly benefit domestic and foreign businesses, said Gu Fan, general manager of Growth Acceleration, Amazon Web Services Greater China.

Gu said his company will continue to tap into the Chinese market with further investment, and he is looking forward to assisting more companies with their sustainability visions.

The green and low-carbon drive is a major feature of the event, which has several related themed forums and exhibitions of cutting-edge green services, technologies, and business models.

People in fields such as supply chains, IT, construction, and finance are closely watching opportunities in the global low-carbon scenario, especially the vast opportunities in China's dual carbon targets, said Qin Hu, vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and chief representative of EDF's Beijing Representative Office.