the Xinhua News Agency Dec 03, 2022 09:44:54
On Dec 2nd, the article named China’s Trade in Services Had Maintained a Relatively Fast Growth Momentum in the Last 10 Months was released in China Securities Journal. It is reported that Shu Yuting, the spokesperson of the Minister of Commerce, expressed at the regular press conference on Dec 1st, 2022 that China’s trade in services continued to maintain growth. The total service import and export reached 4,918.55 billion yuan (CNY, the same below), up 17.2% year-on-year; among which the service exports reached 235.85 billion yuan, up 18.1%; imports 2,560.4 billion yuan, up 16.4%.
According to the experts, China’s trade in services has maintained a relatively fast growth momentum since this year, fully reflecting the positive results achieved in the field of services trade in China to optimize the structure and enhance competitiveness. The rise of some new service industries is injecting new growth momentum for trade in services.
China’s trade in knowledge-intensive services has achieved stable growth
Shu Yuting introduced, from January to October, China’s trade in knowledge-intensive services has achieved stable growth and reached 204.78 billion yuan, an increase of 10.3%. Among them, the knowledge-intensive services exports topped 114.92 billion yuan, up 14.3% year-on-year. Intellectual property royalties, telecommunications computer and information services exports grew faster, respectively, up 17.3% and 16.3% year-on-year. Knowledge-intensive services import topped 897.88 billion yuan, an increase of 5.6%; while the fastest is insurance services with a year-on-year growth rate of 57.1%.
From a structural point of view, the development of China’s trade in services will continue to upgrade, and computer information services and other emerging productive services are injecting new growth momentum for trade in services.
“At present, China’s knowledge-intensive service industry is mainly concentrated in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.” Liu Chunsheng, associate professor of the School of International Economics and Trade of the Central University of Finance and Economics, said that the development of a knowledge-intensive service industry depends on the development of high-end industries. Only when high-end industries flourish can the growth of demand for knowledge-intensive service industries be fundamentally promoted, thus driving the development of related industries. In addition, the arrival of leading enterprises and leading enterprises will also drive the development of a large number of related service industries.
The data also show that the import and export of travel services continue to recover. From January to October, the import and export of travel services topped 689.06 billion yuan, an increase of 9.1%. Excluding travel services, China’s service imports and exports grew by 18.6% from January to October, with exports up 19% and imports up 18.1%. Compared with the same period in 2019, service imports and exports grew by 51.7%, with exports up 66.7% and imports up 36.9%.
Help foreign enterprises for better development
When it comes to stabilizing foreign investment, Shu Yuting said that the Ministry of Commerce has given full play to the role of foreign trade and foreign investment coordination mechanism to work on key foreign investment projects, carried out regular communication with foreign enterprises and foreign business associations, responded positively to the reasonable demands of foreign enterprises to facilitate their business in China in a timely manner, and coordinated to promote the resolution of various difficulties and problems. In the next step, the Ministry of Commerce will continue to play the role of regular communication mechanism with foreign enterprises and foreign business associations to help foreign enterprises for better development.
Since the fourth quarter, China has further strengthened support for the foreign investment stabilization policy. Recently, the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments have been intensively deploying initiatives to stabilize foreign investment, introducing “Several Policies and Measures for Increasing Foreign Investment, Stabilizing the Stock, and Improving the Quality with a Focus on the Manufacturing Industry” to promote the high-quality development of foreign investment utilization; launching the “the Catalogue of Industries for Encouraging Foreign Investment (2022 Version) ” to further expand the scope of encouraging foreign investment; and launching the sixth batch of major foreign investment projects to promote iconic major landmark projects.
“In the future, it is also necessary to actively respond to the reasonable demands of foreign-funded enterprises, vigorously promote the reform of institutional mechanisms, and effectively improve the investment business environment.” Liu Zhibiao, director of the Changjiang Institute of Industrial Economics at Nanjing University, believes that the open system reform should be promoted in a classified manner in accordance with international high-standard rules. We should promote the final policy services to create a more stable, open and transparent, predictable business environment for investment, encourage and guide foreign-funded enterprises to reinvest their profits and further explore and release the investment potential of foreign enterprises.
