China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), inaugurated in 2012, is one of the three major exhibitions for China's opening up. Intended as a global brand of trade in services, it is now, after eight years of development, a barometer of China's trade in services and a bridge facilitating international high-level cooperation in trade in services.

Under the theme of “Global Services, Shared Prosperity”, the 2020 CIFTIS came to an end on September 9. During the six days of the event, 190 forums and negotiations were staged on 200,000 square meters of exhibition space, with new policies and measures for opening up announced and business intentions and agreements nailed.

Carrying forward the historical missions and taking on new responsibilities, the CIFTIS would blaze a new trail for the opening up of China's services sector. With CIFTIS as a spearhead, Beijing would open a new chapter in China's opening up through its efforts to build a national comprehensive demonstration zone for greater openness in the services sector.

Bringing together multiple quality events, embarking on a new journey

In the exhibition hall of 5G communication services, new achievements of 5G development attracted large numbers of visitors with cloud gaming devices, AR concerts, and intelligent city management and operation platforms (e.g. for smart sanitation) as eye-openers for all.

With the rapid development of China's trade in services, the CIFTIS, jointly organized by the Ministry of Commerce and the People's Government of Beijing Municipality, would continue to grow into an even better high-level international event.

As the first major international economic and trade event held in China since the outbreak of COVID-19, the 2020 CIFTIS attracted wide attention.

—Bringing together several important exhibitions and events such as the China Beijing International Cultural Industry Expo, Beijing International Tourism Expo, World Winter Sports (Beijing) Expo, Beijing International Finance Expo, and World Robot Conference. Besides, the CIFTIS presented itself in a brand-new “1+8+N” model, i.e. one comprehensive exhibition area, eight thematic exhibitions and multiple functional service zones.

In the thematic exhibition hall for tourism services, gorgeous scenery was presented through cutting-edge technologies like digital visualization and artificial intelligence. At the exhibition zone for service robots, underwater robots, industrial drones, and various high-tech products left visitors in awe for what science and technology may bring.

—Altogether 190 forums and negotiations were held during the 2020 CIFTIS online and offline.

Representatives from 22,000 enterprises and organizations from 148 countries and regions participated in the four summit forums on emerging trends in the opening-up and development of trade in services and other topics online or offline, sharing their opinions on new achievements and trends in global trade in services.

According to preliminary statistics, 97 authoritative documents were released, 19 alliances or platforms were established, and 99 innovations were launched at the 2020 CIFTIS. Besides, provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, large enterprises directly under the central government, and financial institutions all came to the event in groups for the first time to negotiate for procurement contracts, signing 240 agreements.

Wang Bingnan, Vice Minister of Commerce, pointed out that the 2020 CIFTIS demonstrated the effectiveness of China's epidemic control efforts and achievements in economic and social development, sending out positive signals reaffirming that China would continue to advocate economic globalization and strengthen international economic and trade cooperation.

Many international companies believed that the CIFTIS presented a more open Chinese market to the rest of the world. “The CIFTIS enables China's premium companies and services further onto the global market. This will promote the high-quality development of China's services sector and allow the world to share the dividends of China's opening-up,” said Yu Ying, Partner of Government and Public Sector Advisory, KPMG.

Coordinated development between “Made in China” and “Chinese Services”

In the hall for new achievement releases at the CIFTIS, events were held about every half an hour from 9:00 am. Some launched new products while others were signing ceremonies for various agreements. GE Healthcare presented its “Noah Fever Clinic Solution”, Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) released its research report Chinese Cities of Opportunity 2020, and Beyondsoft launched its SmartEdge product.

The CIFTIS is now a new stage for global merchants to find business opportunities and for enterprises to showcase their strengths.

Norman Sze, Managing Partner of Northern Region of Deloitte China, expressed Deloitte's willingness to find opportunities for innovation-driven development at the CIFTIS. Sui Guodong, founder of Beijing Zhidemai Technology Co., Ltd., said that his company was increasingly engaged in the fair and that he felt the pulse of China's fast-growing trade in services.

It was the stable and positive development of China's trade in services that instilled confidence into the exhibitors and experts at the event.

In fact, if the travel services industry, which suffered bitterly from the COVID-19 pandemic, is excluded, China's import and export of services grew by 2.1 percent in the first half of 2020, playing a major role in keeping foreign trade stable and securing foreign investment. Meanwhile, tourism is on its way to recovery.

“The Master Plan for the Construction of Hainan Free Trade Port, released in June, was a key step forward for the construction of the free trade port with Chinese characteristics and has played a huge role in revitalizing Hainan's tourism industry.” Liu Cheng, Deputy Director General of Hainan Provincial Department of Tourism Culture, Radio, Film, Television, Publication and Sports, said at CIFTIS 2020, “In Hainan, tourism used to be the driver of consumption, but now consumption also tends to drive tourism.”

“Against the backdrop of the severe impact of the COVID-19, the resilience of China's economy, the momentum of its services sector, and, in particular, the high growth rate and high added value of trade in services, have opened up ample room for trade growth in China.” said Dong Yu, Executive Vice President of China Institute for Development Planning at Tsinghua University, adding that China's trade in services, transformed and upgraded, has a played its role in keeping foreign trade and investment stable.

According to Bai Ming, Deputy Director of the International Market Institute of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, in developing trade in services, we should consider the transformation and upgrading of China's manufacturing sector, highlight the role of science and technology in services, and strive to form positive interactions between industries, regions, and the upstream and downstream sections of industry chains.

“'Made in China' should advance hand in hand with 'Chinese services' to create an open cooperation system featuring 'manufacturing + services',” said Wang Qiang, Vice President of the University of International Business and Economics.

China's opening-up brings opportunities to the world

In 2020, CITIC Prudential Fund Management Company had completed its registration, Oaktree Capital set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in Beijing; and Fitch (China) Bohua Credit Ratings Ltd. got the approval to start business operation. Despite the adverse impact of the COVID-19, the Chinese market remained highly attractive to the world as its services sector opened its arms.

“The approval came earlier than we expected. The company has put in place a sound organizational structure and operation has started smoothly.” Chen Dongming, President of Fitch Bohua, a foreign rating company approved to enter the Chinese market in May, said that Beijing's policies for greater openness in the services sector had helped his company get on track very quickly.

Since the launch of the comprehensive pilot project for greater openness of the services sector in Beijing in 2015, three different plans have been proposed, and more than 120 reform measures have been launched for greater openness of the services sector, investment and trade facilitation, and a better business environment.

As the pilot program expanded, the benefit it brings spread too. At the 2020 CIFTIS, China announced that Beijing would build a national integrated demonstration zone for greater openness in the services sector as the Plan for Deepening the Comprehensive Pilot Program of a New Round of Expanding Opening-up of the Services Sector in Beijing Municipality and Building a National Comprehensive Demonstration Zone for Expanding Opening-up of the Services Sector was approved by the State Council. The plan sets out objectives for the next ten years and 26 specific measures for greater openness of the services sector in Beijing.

According to Chen Jining, Mayor of Beijing, based on the mutual reinforcement of the domestic and international circulations, Beijing would adopt more flexible models for opening-up such as “industry opening-up + park opening-up”, try out negative list management of cross-border trade in services, improve regulatory services, and increase tax incentives for venture capital investment, technology transfer and employment of foreign specialists, so that more and more long-term mechanisms would be established for advancing the opening-up and development of the services sector with less restrictions on foreign investment.

“The plan has quite a few highlights.” said Zheng Wei, Associate Researcher at the China Outsourcing Institute. It aims to further open up of the services sector in Beijing, and proposes to build a national comprehensive demonstration zone. This would give full play to the demonstration zone's function as a platform, accelerate the clustering of the services sector, and bring economies of scale to the efforts to further open up.

Tom Simpson, Managing Director of China Operations of China Britain Business Council (CBBC), stated that it is a highly positive signal that Beijing would build a comprehensive demonstration zone, and he also expressed CBBC's willingness to encourage more British companies to come to China through cooperation and communication.

The 2020 CIFTIS had come to an end on September 9, but the online platform powered by JD.com would continue to run as CIFTIS on the cloud that would never draw its curtains.

“CIFTIS on the cloud maximizes cooperation opportunities for foreign companies and organizations.” said Joanna Liu, Executive Director of Euro-Sino Enterprises Association. China demonstrated its determination to open up further in all aspects. “We are pretty optimistic about China's development prospects and believe that a more open and inclusive China will contribute even more to the world economy.”