CIFTIS to be built into world's most influential fair for services trade

The 2024 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) will be held from September 12 to 16 in Beijing. Since its inception in 2012, the CIFTIS has been successfully held for 10 sessions. This year's CIFTIS will continue to focus on the theme "Global Services, Shared Prosperity" and keep working to build itself into the world's most influential fair for services trade.

Highlighting its role as an open platform, this year's fair will see a high-level global trade in services summit and more than 100 forums and events, and authoritative reports will be released, said Tang Wenhong, China's assistant minister of commerce.

Two foreign tourists pose for a picture in Yuyuan Garden, east China's Shanghai, July 9, 2024. (People's Daily Online/Weng Qiyu)

Since its inception, the CIFTIS has attracted over 900,000 attendees and exhibitors from 197 countries and regions, becoming an important platform for deepening international cooperation on services trade.

This year, more than 80 countries and international organizations will hold exhibitions at the fair, with 13 of them, including Portugal and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, holding independent offline exhibitions for the first time.

France will be the guest of honor for the first time and will build a special pavilion to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and France.

So far, more than 420 Fortune Global 500 and leading enterprises have confirmed their offline participation in the 2024 CIFTIS. Thirty-seven Chinese local trade delegations, as well as trade delegations of China's state-owned companies and state-owned financial enterprises, have been established. They are expected to facilitate targeted matchmaking and realize more practical achievements.

The latest developments in technology will be showcased at this year's CIFTIS, covering satellite internet, big data and computing power, energy conservation and carbon reduction. It will highlight new services and scenarios in digital culture and tourism, smart education, and intelligent sports.

Photo shows the 2023 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) held at the China National Convention Center. (People's Daily Online/Weng Qiyu)

Over 100 institutions and companies including the United Nations Postal Administration and Philips will present their achievements, unveiling new technologies and innovations like an AI-assisted orthopedic surgery robot and the integration of the metaverse with real-world data, leading the industry's innovation trends.

Sima Hong, deputy mayor of Beijing, said that the 2024 CIFTIS will include a comprehensive exhibition and a thematic exhibition. The comprehensive exhibition is set at the China National Convention Center, showcasing new achievements and trends in services trade. The thematic exhibition is located in Shougang Park, which will display the latest achievements, technologies, and applications in the digital, intelligent, and green services trade.

According to Tang, in the first half of this year, China's services trade volume reached a historical high for the same period, totaling 3.6 trillion yuan ($507.84 billion), a year-on-year increase of 14 percent. Among them, services exports amounted to 1.5 trillion yuan, up 10.7 percent, and services imports jumped 16.4 percent to over 2.1 trillion yuan.

Tang said that the proportion of services trade in China's total trade volume reached 14.5 percent in the first six months of 2024, an increase of 1 percentage point from the same period last year.

Traditional services such as travel and transportation have shown strong vitality. In the first half of the year, China's foreign trade in travel-related services surged 47.7 percent to surpass 961.7 billion yuan, becoming a key pillar of the country's services trade.

Photo shows environmentally friendly bamboo products exhibited at the comprehensive exhibition of the 2023 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), September 4, 2023. (People's Daily Online/Weng Qiyu)

The import and export of transportation services reached 925.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.2 percent. Trade in knowledge-intensive services also showed sound growth momentum. Overall, the development of services trade for the whole year is expected to remain stable and positive with the continuous improvement of the trade structure, Tang said.

Trade in services is an important area of international economic and trade cooperation, said Wang Dongtang, a senior official with China's Ministry of Commerce.

In recent years, China's Ministry of Commerce has actively enhanced the development mechanism of trade in services and promoted multifaceted and broad-ranging international cooperation to further expand the "circle of friends" in services trade, Wang explained.

China has signed services trade cooperation agreements with 15 countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore, Brazil, and Argentina. It has reached and implemented cooperation documents related to services trade with BRICS countries, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states, and Central and Eastern European countries.

China strives to establish an open and mutually beneficial network of international cooperation in services trade for win-win outcomes. Moving forward, it will continue to strengthen policy coordination, project docking, and research cooperation with relevant trading partners.