A display at the 2019 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, capital of China on Tuesday Photo: Li Hao/GT

A trade fair in Beijing has shown that China has made steady steps toward growth in knowledge and technology-intensive services.

The five-day 2019 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) closed the curtain on Saturday in Beijing, with intended contracts worth $105 billion signed.

The contracts, covering financial, communication, information technology, cultural and legal services, signal China's upbeat momentum in the growth of its non-manufacturing sector.

Over the week, the world's largest services trade fair hosted some 240 forums and business talks, which occupied nearly all major conference venues in the Chinese capital.

Yan Ligang, the fair's spokesperson, said 11 venues saw more than 400,000 visits by participants from 137 countries and regions and 21 international organizations.

He said that, in total, 306 domestic projects worth $87.512 billion were signed at the fair. There were also 134 overseas projects with a total value of $17.55 billion.

As the non-manufacturing sector sustains ever-expanding growth, the Chinese government upgraded the biennial fair - formerly held by the municipal government of Beijing since 2012 - to a national fair for trade in services to be held annually starting this year.

Many foreign visitors described CIFTIS as crucial for addressing the challenges facing the world economy.

"As national barriers to trade in services are mounting in numbers, CIFTIS gathers us together to discuss this issue in a timely manner and jointly explore the path to promote trade in service and create a favorable trading environment," said Ludger Schuknecht, deputy secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in his speech delivered at the fair.

"At these difficult times in global trade, keeping the door open is a contribution that China can do to boost confidence in international trade and stabilize global demand," said Dorothy Tembo, deputy executive director of the International Trade Center (ITC), at CIFTIS.

She said as a joint agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organization, ITC is dedicated to supporting SMEs around the world. It supported 100 companies from developing countries to attend the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai last year. These companies initiated deals worth over $116 million after the event.

At a forum discussion at CIFTIS, Tembo said a WTO study found that by lowering costs and increasing productivity, digital technologies could provide an additional boost to trade by up to 34 percent by 2030. 

At an e-commerce themed exhibition area of CIFTIS, visitors were welcomed at the doorway by an exhibition featuring a smart home with intelligent furnishings presented by Gome Intelligent Technology Co, the tech arm of Chinese home appliance retailer GOME.

From door locks and lighting to home appliances, everything was voice-controlled and connected to the Internet for remote control via a mobile app.

Even the pictures on the walls at the fair showed signs of new tech. Beside photos showing China's poverty-stricken areas, visitors paused to scan QR codes underneath to find not only details but also local specialties that could be immediately ordered online, such as tea and pear syrup, to support China's poverty relief efforts, which include e-commerce sales of farm produce.

The fair's organizer held an auction of agricultural goods and futures orders, which garnered 1.4 billion yuan ($202.8 million) of funding to assist the growers' poverty relief endeavors.

Worawit Techasupakura, a tourism official from Thailand, said a group of enterprises from Thailand's competitive industries including food, medical services and environmental protection participated in this CIFTIS session.

He said 10.5 million trips were made by Chinese tourists to Thailand in 2018, up 7.4 percent from 2017, bringing in $18 billion in tourist income.

Strategic transition

China has worked to steer away from the old growth driver of export-oriented manufacturing to power the new engine of trade in services.

The Ministry of Commerce released data showing on Tuesday that China's service trade rose 2.6 percent to 1.29 trillion yuan in the first quarter of 2019, after recording robust growth of 11.5 percent to 5.24 trillion yuan in 2018, a historic high and ranking second in the world for five consecutive years. The share of service trade in the country's total foreign trade has reached 15.6 percent.

In 2018, China's service exports in transportation, insurance, intellectual property royalties and other business service sectors all posted double-digit growth, with exports of computer and information soaring 69.5 percent year on year.

China has taken a slew of measures to open up the service sector and push forward services trade with overseas partners. Its service trade with countries and regions along the Belt and Road (B&R) reached over $120 billion last year, according to the ministry.

Beijing is China's pilot city for the expansion and opening-up of the service trade industry. In 2017, it saw the launch of China's first foreign-controlled joint venture in aircraft maintenance, set up by Air France Industries KLM Engineering and Maintenance and Beijing General Aviation Co.

In 2018, the added value of Beijing's service trade accounted for 81 percent of the city's GDP.

In March, the Bank of Beijing announced plans to cooperate with global finance company ING Bank N.V. to invest 3 billion yuan to set up a banking joint venture, in which ING Bank holds a 51-percent stake.

Speaking at CIFTIS, Norman Sze, Deloitte China Government Affairs lead partner and Northern Region managing partner, said China's development of trade in services would bring huge opportunities, and Deloitte hopes to share its expertise with Chinese firms in the sector.
Newspaper headline: A switch to services