Services Trade Surges as China Embraces Smart
Technologies, Openness
·
Total
services trade (Jan–Jul 2025):
4.58 trillion yuan (US$642.7 bn), ↑8.2%
YoY.
·
Tourism
services: 1.26
trillion yuan (US$177 bn), ↑10.4%
YoY.
·
Knowledge-intensive
services: 1.78
trillion yuan (US$250 bn), ↑6.8%
YoY.
·
Nearly
2,000 enterprises
participated, including Fortune
500 firms.
·
Australia (guest country of honor)
sent its largest-ever
delegation (60 orgs/companies) and signed 15 agreements with
Chinese partners in education, healthcare, finance, culture.
·
Multinationals
like Philips, TUI, Zaha
Hadid Architects showcased innovations and cited China’s increasingly open, inclusive business
environment.
·
Theme:
“Embrace Intelligent
Technologies, Empower Trade in Services.”
·
AI,
robotics, cloud, digital finance
featured prominently.
·
ICBC’s
AI humanoid robot
demonstrated smart banking.
·
Construction
firms using digital
design-to-fabrication tools for precision and efficiency.
·
Global
leaders highlight China’s shift from manufacturing
hub to innovation powerhouse.
·
Vice
Premier Ding Xuexiang:
Reaffirmed China’s commitment
to openness, cooperation, and institutional reforms in services
trade.
·
Foreign
scholars and think tanks praised China’s role
in supporting inclusive global growth, especially for the Global South.
·
CIFTIS
seen as a counterweight to rising
protectionism, offering a boost to global trade and governance.
CIFTIS 2025 underscores
China’s rapid pivot toward high-value
services, digital innovation, and openness to global cooperation.
It highlights opportunities in healthcare,
tourism, finance, AI, green tech, and cultural exchanges,
strengthening China’s positioning as a driver of global services trade.
In Shougang Park, a former ironworks site in
western Beijing, new technologies from AI to cloud computing and green
innovation are on display amid the rusty blast furnaces and steel relics.
The 2025 China International Fair for Trade in
Services (CIFTIS), featuring digital innovation and intelligent technologies,
is underway in the park, gathering nearly 2,000 enterprises, including Global
Fortune 500 companies and leading industrial enterprises in search of new
cooperation opportunities in China.
Global exhibitors and business leaders are
optimistic about the growth and future of China's international services trade,
hailing the country's consistent policies to open up its services sector as a
catalyst for global trade and shared growth.
ROBUST GROWTH
For Philips, the Dutch medical technology leader
with a four-decade presence in China, the fair reflects robust momentum in the
country's healthcare sector. Returning to CIFTIS for the fifth consecutive
year, Philips unveiled its latest magnetic resonance system, a breakthrough
that shortens scan times and boosts efficiency.
"The growing awareness of healthcare and
the leap in medical technologies have fueled the sector's growth in
China," said Yang Donglan, vice president of Philips Greater China.
"Every year at CIFTIS, we feel China's business environment becoming more
open and inclusive, giving us the confidence to deepen our roots here."
Tourism company TUI China shares that optimism.
The Germany-headquartered firm sees inbound travel gaining fresh momentum.
Technology has been a boost to tourism, said TUI
China CEO Guido Brettschneider, noting that modern technologies, ranging from
translation tools that enable tour guides to communicate in multiple languages
to mobile payment options like Alipay and WeChat Pay for overseas visitors,
have reduced barriers and enhanced traveler satisfaction.
The numbers bear this out. From January to July
in 2025, China's total services trade reached 4.58 trillion yuan (642.7 billion
U.S. dollars), up 8.2 percent year on year. Tourism, a pillar of this growth,
totaled 1.26 trillion yuan (177 billion dollars), surging 10.4 percent,
according to a report from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce in early September.
The growth is attracting more global partners.
Australia, this year's guest country of honor at CIFTIS, sent its largest-ever
delegation of nearly 60 organizations and companies.
On the opening day, it signed 15 agreements with
Chinese partners in sectors including education, healthcare, finance and
culture.
"China remains a market of tremendous
potential in the service sector," said Dominic Trindade, commercial
minister at the Australian Embassy in Beijing. "Australia is committed to
the Chinese market and our service providers are ready to develop new
partnerships here."
TECH POWER
At the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
(ICBC) booth, a humanoid robot greeted visitors, offering a glimpse into the
future of banking.
Already deployed in several branches, the AI
assistant can answer questions and explain bank services -- an emblem of this
year's CIFTIS theme: "Embrace Intelligent Technologies, Empower Trade in
Services."
Digital innovation is becoming the backbone of
China's service economy. In the first seven months of 2025, knowledge-intensive
services -- including AI, digital finance, and professional consulting -- rose
6.8 percent to 1.78 trillion yuan (250 billion dollars), said the commerce
ministry report.
For Zaha Hadid Architects, a British
architecture and design firm, the tech boom is transforming the construction
services industry.
Digital tools are adopted throughout the
construction process, from design to fabrication, enabling factories to
precisely execute the design, which enhances accuracy and quality control, said
Satoshi Ohashi, director of Zaha Hadid Architects.
China has built an incredible manufacturing
base, and now it has grown and developed into an innovation powerhouse, said
Ohashi. "And I think that's the power and potential of the Chinese
economy."
The view is echoed by Henning Kristoffersen,
commercial counselor of the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Beijing, who noted that
China's technological advancements are helping international firms raise
efficiency and sharpen competitiveness.
By shifting from traditional industries to
high-value-added sectors, China is enhancing its capacity to deliver
high-quality and innovative services to its international partners, said Dale
Pinto, president and chair of the board of CPA Australia. "This transition
is opening new avenues for global cooperation of mutual benefit."
POLICY OPENNESS
The rapid expansion of China's services trade
comes amid its consistent commitment to opening up and win-win cooperation.
Amid a notable rise in unilateralism and
protectionism, China has steadily advanced institutional opening up in trade in
services, which has provided strong momentum for its own development and
created greater room for global economic growth, said Chinese Vice Premier Ding
Xuexiang during a keynote speech at the event.
He also reiterated China's commitment to working
with all countries and parties to strengthen opening up and cooperation in
services trade.
This commitment is tangible for foreign
companies like Philips.
A more open and inclusive business environment
in China offers more pragmatic opportunities for the company's development,
encouraging it to further strengthen its operations here, said Yang Donglan,
vice president of Philips Greater China.
Global scholars have hailed China's opening up
as a strong driver for an open world economy and inclusive growth.
China's efforts to advance high-standard opening
up bring opportunities for shared development and prosperity to countries of
the Global South, while improving the global governance system, said Mutinda
Mutisya, a senior lecturer at the Department of Diplomacy and International
Studies of the University of Nairobi.
Steps taken by Chinese policymakers have created
a platform for equal participation by its partners, including emerging
economies, said Tolonbek Abdyrov, a professor of
economics and vice rector of the International Higher School of Medicine in
Kyrgyzstan, noting that China's advocacy for equal rights to development of all
countries sends a clear and positive message.
CIFTIS and China's commitment to openness
provide a much-needed boost to global trade, strained by tariff hikes, said
Herman Tiu Laurel, president of the Asian Century Philippines Strategic Studies
Institute, a Manila-based think tank. "CIFTIS will help sustain and
improve the momentum of global trade and growth."
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