2021 CIFTIS:Starting A New Chapter of Open Cooperation

By zhao Ailing

The China International Fair for Trade in Services， the most renowned large-scale and rich-incontent event in the world， was held as scheduled this year. The event featured two exhibition halls， with participation of more than 10，000 companies from 116 overseas countries and regions， and 1，627 outcomes.

This years CIFTIS was a larger scale of participation and better quality of exhibitors. Last year， enterprises and institutions from 148 countries and regions participated in the event. This year there were 153 countries and regions and the number of exhibitors increased by 52%. The proportion of world top 500 and industry flagship companies reached 18%， up by 9% from last year.

This years CIFTIS sets up dual exhibition venues. Besides the China National Conven- tion Center， this event added Shougang Park as its new exhibition venue. The comprehensive exhibition was placed in the China National Convention Center， to showcase the distinct advantages and recent achievements of global services trade. As a place witnessing Chinas industrial development and opening-up and reform， Shougang Park featured eight specific exhibitions. The theme of this years CIFTIS was“Towards A Digital Future and Service-Driven Development”， showing that digitization was the highlight of the event. The CIFTIS focused on the accelerated digital transformation of trade in services since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and set up the digital services exhibition zone， to display the newest achievements in unmanned vehicles， intelligent traffic， construction digitization and new audio and video.

On the Global Summit on Trade in Servic-es held on September 4 last year， Chinese President Xi Jinping said in the keynote speech that China has combated tremendous challenges to hold an international trade and economic event of such a large scale. The purpose was to work with all parties through the difficult time and promote global prosperity of trade in services. The CIFTIS was held again one year later， as the global pandemic continued and world economic recovery was weak. This showed the Chinese governments focus on trade in services， and the firm determination to promote opening-up to a higher level. In this years speech， Xi Jinping emphasized three points of “importance”： the trade in service is an important part of international trade and field of international trade and economic cooperation， and plays an important role in formulating the new development pattern. Xi Jinping also an- nounced three aspects of important measures， including raising the level of opening up， promoting the implementation of a negative list of cross-border trade in services， and exploring the establishment of a demonstration area for the development and innovation of national service trade， increase support for trade in services of Belt and Road countries to expand cooperation space and share with the world Chinas technological development achievements.

The trade in services is closely related to the construction of a new development pattern. When “Chinas service” and “global service” are seamlessly intermingled， the high-quality world services will enrich Chinas high-quality lives. Chinas development will also provide new opportunities for the world. While the six-day event was drawn to an end， global cooperation will continue as always.