Fair to sharpen Beijing's edge in services

The opening ceremony of the Third China (Beijing) International Fair for Trade in Services. In 2013, Beijing's trade in services exceeded $110 billion, about 1.2 percent of the global total. Zou Hong / China Daily

Multinational exhibitors flock to city's National Convention Center

The exposition that opened this week in Beijing is expected to enhance the municipality's quality of trade in services as the city restructures its growth outlook, experts said.

"The headquarters of Beijing's services businesses - State-owned, private and foreign-invested ones - accounted for almost half of the municipality's total value-added businesses and about 60 percent of the city's income and tax revenue," Lu Yan, director general of Beijing's municipal commerce commission, said on Wednesday.

In 2013, Beijing's trade in services exceeded $110 billion, about 1.2 percent of the global total. The first quarter of this year saw the city's trade in services reach $40 billion, up 54 percent-from a year earlier, according to the commission.

Although the city's economic growth recently eased its pace, the municipal government is adjusting to the slowdown by restructuring the growth to a model driven by services, high-end industries and innovation, which is also "green" growth.

The city has attracted multinational businesses from different services sectors, including accounting, consulting, creative design, research and development and copyright trading, to set up headquarters or branches.

The Third China Beijing International Fair for Trade in Services, or CIFTIS, kicked off at the National Convention Center on May 28 and will last until June 1. Some 26,700 traders and 2,524 enterprises from 117 countries and regions will take part in the five-day event. With the theme of "Better Policies for Better Lives," the fair this year includes three kinds of activities - namely, exhibitions, forums and trade negotiations, occupying an exhibition area of 50,000 square meters.

Approved by China's State Council in 2012, CIFTIS is the first comprehensive exhibition event for trade in services worldwide under the auspices of China's Ministry of Commerce and the Beijing municipal government.

"I hope exhibitors and guests from home and abroad can make use of the fair, making it a platform to strengthen communications and cooperation to boost services and trade in services with mutual benefits," said Cheng Hong, deputy mayor of Beijing.

The fair has also won permanent support from the world's three leading organizations: the World Trade Organization, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Cheng said.

Stephen Phillips, the chief officer of the China-Britain Business Council, said that the education sector has huge potential for boosting trade in services between the two countries, as it will help enhance enterprises' competitiveness.

As China drives economic growth more toward domestic consumption and away from exports and investment, services as a sector is becoming increasingly important to the Chinese economy, said Mukhisa Kituyi, secretary general of the UN Conference on Trade and Development.

"In the wake of the global crisis of the past six years China has looked to expand domestic consumer markets to reduce vulnerability to financial activities. The expanding international competitiveness of services in the country ... will continue to grow entrepreneurship, increasing the higher value compenents of global value chains," Kituyi said.

He added that one of the key areas of restructuring the Chinese economy is "according concrete significance to services sectors as you move beyond the traditional emphasis on exported growth and start to emphasize new forms of international trade in global value chains.

"The potential importance of domestic consumers as a driver for sustaining high growth rates will improve and refine attention to the services industry," Kituyi said.