On September 9, the 2026 China International Fair for Trade in Services kicked off at Beijing Shougang Park. This year's Service Trade Fair focuses on the three major functional orientations of "expanding opening up, deepening cooperation, and leading innovation". For the first time, a "China Services" exhibition area was set up in the core area of the theme exhibition. 90 countries, regions and international organizations set up exhibitions, and more than 1,830 companies participated offline. Against the background of profound adjustments to the global service trade pattern, the upgrading of the China Service Trade Fair reflects the vigorous development of China's services trade and will continue to promote more high-quality "Chinese services" to the world.
At present, China's trade in services shows the distinctive characteristics of steady progress and structural improvement. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, from January to July this year, my country’s total service import and export volume was 4.44671 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.3%. Among them, service exports were 1,773.23 billion yuan, an increase of 17.1%. Behind the achievements is the result of the coordinated efforts of traditional services such as travel and transportation and knowledge-intensive services. In particular, the export of knowledge-intensive services was 948.28 billion yuan, an increase of 12.2%, accounting for 53.5% of the total service exports. At the same time, the trend of deep integration and linked development of service trade and high-end manufacturing has become more obvious, and the international competitiveness of China's service industry is steadily rising towards the high end of the value chain.
The level of the platform of this CIFTIS has jumped up, in line with the development trend of China's service trade improvement and upgrading. In terms of opening up, for the first time, the exhibition set up a "China Services" exhibition area in the core area of the theme exhibition, collecting more than 140 cases covering 12 major areas of service trade from across the country, displaying innovative achievements in the field of service trade in various places. In terms of cooperation, the guest country Norway carefully built a national pavilion, and the guest province Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region held special exhibitions and theme activities; the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the Ministry of Commerce and Beijing jointly hosted the Global Trade in Services Summit, with more international participation than the previous one. In terms of innovation, the nine major thematic exhibitions are closely related to key hot areas such as technology, finance, culture and tourism, and medical care. More than 90 companies and institutions will release their results, and innovative technologies, products and services in multiple fields will achieve their first global premiere and first exhibition in China.
For the first time, this CIFTIS has set up overseas service areas in multiple special exhibitions, and has set up overseas service promotion roadshow areas for the first time. Professional institutions in finance, law, accounting, intellectual property, advertising, human resources and other fields will hold more than 40 promotion roadshows to provide professional support for Chinese enterprises to expand the international market. This first-of-its-kind move accurately responds to the profound changes in the needs of Chinese enterprises, which are shifting from exporting products overseas to providing services. By aggregating high-end professional service resources, the China Service Trade Fair has built a systematic support system for Chinese services and Chinese manufacturing to collaborate overseas.
Through the window of the 2026 Service Trade Fair, the world not only saw the scale and growth rate of China's services trade, but also saw China's firm choice to proactively expand the opening of its service market and share development opportunities with other countries. China's services are joining the global trend of trade in services with a more confident attitude. What it gives to the world is not only high-quality services, but also a new pattern of global services trade that is more open, inclusive, and inclusive.
To cultivate more Chinese service brands, we must promote institutional openness in depth. my country is in-depth implementation of the action to expand the capacity and improve the quality of the service industry, accelerate the construction of the national innovative development demonstration zone for service trade, steadily and orderly promote the expansion of market access and open areas focusing on the service industry, improve the negative list management system for cross-border service trade, and break down barriers to cross-border service trade. A series of policy initiatives complement the platform function of the CIFTIS and will open up a broader channel for China’s services to the world from the institutional level. (Source of this article: Economic Daily Author: Jin Guanping)
