The service trade fair has become a new business card for China to expand its opening up to the outside world

□ Global Focus

□ Reporter Wu Qiong

From August 31st to September 5th, the 2022 China International Fair for Trade in Services (hereinafter referred to as the "Service Trade Fair"), with the theme of "Service Cooperation promotes development, green innovation and the future", was held in Beijing in a combination of online and offline. This year's service trade fair has many highlights and attracted global attention. International public opinion generally believes that as the largest comprehensive exhibition in the field of global trade in services, the "circle of friends" of the service trade fair has become larger and larger in the past 10 years, and the market attractiveness and global competitiveness have been continuously improved, which not only witnessed the rapid development of China's service trade, but also made positive contributions to promoting the development of global service industry and service trade, but also reflected China's determination to adhere to a high level of opening up. Today, the service trade fair has become a new business card for China to expand its opening up to the outside world and promote international cooperation.

Witness the rapid development of trade in services

From the six Beijing Fairs from 2012 to 2019 (full name is China (Beijing) International Trade in Services Fair) to the Service Trade Fair since 2020, as the world's only national, international and comprehensive service trade platform, the Service Trade Fair has gone through ten years so far. The 10 years of the service trade fair are also the 10 years of rapid development of China's service trade. The consecutive service trade fairs held as scheduled have created new opportunities for the development of global trade in services and boosted confidence in the recovery and development of the world economy.

Singapore's "Lianhe Zaobao" and other media reported that this year's service trade fair focuses on the hot trend of service trade, focusing on telecommunications, computer and information services, financial services, cultural tourism services, education services, sports services, supply chain and business services, engineering consulting and construction services, health services, and environmental services. A number of media commented that the larger scale and richer content of the exhibition have become a highlight of this year's service trade fair.

Many media also mentioned in the report that coinciding with the 10th year of the Service Trade Fair, the 2022 Service Trade Fair set up a "China Service Trade Achievement Exhibition Area" in the comprehensive exhibition hall of the National Convention Center, involving supply chain services, construction services, air transport services and other fields, covering the latest application scenarios such as digital yuan and artificial intelligence, reviewing the 10-year development process and achievements of China's service trade.

The American "Overseas Chinese Daily" said in the report that the service trade fair set a permanent slogan for "global service mutual benefit and sharing", and the annual theme of 2022 is "service cooperation to promote development, green innovation to welcome the future".

According to the report, since its inception, the level of specialization, marketization and internationalization has been continuously improved, which has played an important role in promoting the high-quality development of China's service trade. Not only that, this year's service trade fair also has hundreds of enterprises and institutions to release results, injecting new impetus into the development of global service trade.

An important platform for opening up to the outside world

The United States "Overseas Chinese Daily" and other media commented that since the upgrading of quality in 2020, the service trade fair has become an important platform for China to launch major reform and opening up policy measures, consolidate global cooperation consensus, promote international exchanges and cooperation, and is a major exhibition platform for China's opening up to the outside world.

Russian Satellite News Agency and other media praised the service trade fair as a leading event in the field of global trade in services, together with the Canton Fair and the Expo, it constitutes three major exhibition platforms for China's opening up to the outside world, closely connecting China and the world, and injecting Chinese energy into world economic growth. These media also pointed out that the high-level service trade fair is a realistic footnote to China's unswerving promotion of reform and opening up, and its adherence to "opening the door to development and opening its arms to promote cooperation".

What amazed the international community was that the "circle of friends" of this session of the service trade fair continued to expand, the level of internationalization was further improved, and more than 70 countries and international organizations confirmed to set up exhibitions in the name of countries or headquarters, of which 10 countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, Italy, Australia, Norway, Pakistan, North Macedonia, Burundi, Liechtenstein and Cyprus set up exhibitions in national names for the first time. In addition, there are a total of 2441 offline exhibitors in this session of the service trade fair, the number of which exceeds that of the previous session, and the internationalization rate is 20.6%, an increase of 2.6 percentage points over the previous session, covering 27 of the top 30 countries and regions in service trade. There are 7,700 online exhibitors, and the number also exceeds that of the previous session.

Multinational media also paid attention to the fact that this session of the service trade fair further played the role of an important exhibition platform for opening up to the outside world, set up a variety of forum links, and held 7 summit forums, 128 thematic forums and 5 side meeting activities during the conference. The summit forum carried out exchanges and discussions on the themes of the new trend of open development of trade in services, the facilitation of trade in services from the perspective of multinational companies, the high-quality development of e-commerce, and the acceleration of the recovery of the tourism industry, and held relevant forum meetings closely following the theme of the conference.

In addition to the media, in recent days, many companies participating in the service trade fair also said in interviews that they attach great importance to the platform of the service trade fair, and also said that they participated in the dividends of China's deepening opening up. Wanna Luo Lak, Managing Director of Thailand's Jinchi Industrial Park, said: "We are the direct beneficiaries of the service trade fair. Through the platform of the service trade fair, we have a very broad space for docking with the Chinese market, so from the Thai government to the private sector, we attach great importance to the service trade fair, and every year there are representatives of government departments and enterprises actively participating in the exhibition. We believe that the service trade will help us enter China and the world faster. ”

Miko Meyer, sales director of The Asian region of Italy's Sky Ice Company, looks forward to further opening up the Chinese market through the service trade fair and sharing the dividends of China's opening up to the outside world.

"At a time when the world is facing multiple difficulties and economic development, trade flows, supply chains, etc. are being impacted, the service trade fair held by China will boost China's opening up process." Abu Becker Dib, an adviser to the Egyptian Arab Studies Center and an expert in international relations and political economy, said.

Opportunities for multinational enterprises

International public opinion generally believes that in the context of the repeated global new crown epidemic, the return of anti-globalization and trade protectionist ideas, and the weak recovery of the world economy, it is of great significance to hold the 2022 Service Trade Fair as scheduled, which not only demonstrates China's determination to promote a higher level of opening up, but also will continue to consolidate the consensus of globalization, indicating that openness and cooperation is still the historical trend, and mutual benefit and win-win results are still the aspirations of the people.

At the same time, a number of overseas political and business people, experts and scholars pointed out that the service trade fair has become an important platform for enterprises from all countries to display and disseminate new formats, new models and new ideas for the development of service trade. The holding of the service trade fair has provided business opportunities for multinational enterprises, provided all-round opportunities for these enterprises to actively integrate into China's service market, built a platform for service trade practitioners to communicate with each other and make new partners, and injected new impetus and vitality into the development of service trade.

Bruno, chief representative of the Beijing office of the Italian Foreign Trade Commission, believes that the service trade fair is a good opportunity to establish and consolidate trade relations. "Italy's trade with China is very prosperous, and we hope to promote the trade between the two countries to continue to develop through the opportunity of the service trade fair."

The German Federal Foreign Trade and Investment Agency, which participated in the exhibition for the second time, joined hands with the economic promotion agencies of The states of Hamburg, North Rhine-Westphalia and Thuringia and two German companies to form the German National Pavilion at the 2022 Service Trade Fair. Dennis Wilkens, the representative of the German Federal Trade and Investment Agency in China, who is responsible for participating in the exhibition, said that they hope to continue to harvest friendship and business opportunities on the important platform of open cooperation, mutual benefit and win-win results of the service trade fair.

The international community believes that the successful holding of the service trade fair that withstood the test of the epidemic has created new opportunities for the development of global trade in services, boosted confidence in the recovery and development of the world economy, contributed a platform for high-level cooperation and exchanges to the world, and also allowed the world to see a more open China.

Source: Rule of Law Daily Rule of Law Network