World’s largest services trade fair closes in Beijing, achieves 1,100 outcomes

CIFTIS highlights in Beijing. Photos: Li Hao/GT

The 2023 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), the world's largest services trade fair, has yielded more than 1,100 outcomes in the forms of agreements, deals and academic papers, highlighting China's commitment for wider opening-up and sharing development opportunities with the world.

The event attracted 2,400 companies to the on-site exhibit, while 280,000 people had visited as of noon on Wednesday, according to the event's organizer.

"The CIFTIS is always a window representing China's high-level opening-up and major platform for international firms to cooperate.

"China aims to share the development opportunities of trade in services with all parties by holding the fair, inject impetus into the global economic recovery and contribute to trade exchanges," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular press conference on Wednesday, commenting on the significance of the event as the world economy faces an uphill battle in its recovery from the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nearly 800 foreign government officials, envoys from 42 countries and regions, as well as representatives from international organizations attended this year's CIFTIS, with 500 of them attending in person.

The event attracted 2,400 domestic and foreign companies, with more than 500 world-leading companies and a large number of deals, including the Beijing Convention on the Judicial Sale of Ships, the first maritime UN convention named after a Chinese city, were signed or announced.

National pavilions represented 83 countries and international organizations, 12 more than that in 2022, while the internationalization rate this year exceeded 20 percent.

China has announced measures to open up the services sector wider to the world and China hopes to share opportunities in trade in services, help grow global trade and create new growth drivers for the global economic recovery, Mao said.

Chinese analysts and observers said that the CIFTIS showcased the attractiveness of China's fast-growing services sector and defied Western media hype that the Chinese economy faces a gloomy future.

"The world economy thrives in openness and withers in seclusion. China stands ready to work with all parties to promote inclusive development with openness in the services sector, jointly safeguard free trade and the multilateral trade system, and provide more and better Chinese services to the world," Mao said.

Since China's accession to the WTO in 2001, the country's share in global trade in services has risen from 2.4 percent to 6.5 percent, and China is now the world's fourth-largest exporter and second-largest importer of services, and it is becoming a global center for the supply and demand of services.

In 2022, China's total services trade grew 12.9 percent year-on-year to a record of nearly 6 trillion yuan ($839.16 billion), ranking second in the world for the ninth consecutive year, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce.