Services Trade at a Glance
An official from the Department of Trade in Services and Commercial Services at the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) recently outlined the performance of China's trade in services for the first three quarters of 2025. During this period, China's services trade maintained steady growth, with total imports and exports reaching nearly 5,936.22 billion yuan, up 7.6 percent year-on-year. Specifically, service exports rose 14.4 percent to 2,601.5 billion yuan, while imports increased 2.8 percent to 3,334.72 billion yuan. The services trade deficit stood at 733.22 billion yuan, narrowing by 238.24 billion yuan from the same period last year. The main features are as follows:
CIFTIS:
A Vivid Portrayal of the High-Quality Development of China's Service Industry and Services Trade
CIFTIS and Trade in Services
China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) is a state-level, comprehensive, large-scale exhibition and trading platform with a global reach dedicated to trade in services. Since its inception in 2012, CIFTIS has been successfully held for 12 sessions, witnessing China's journey of opening-up, innovation, and dynamic growth in its service industry and services trade. It has become a barometer of China's trade in services and a bridge for international cooperation.
The 2025 CIFTIS was held at the Shougang Park in Beijing from September 10 to 14. Under the annual theme of "Embrace Intelligent Technologies, Empower Trade in Services," the event spotlighted trending developments in the digital, intelligent, and green transformation of trade in services. It successfully hosted the Global Trade in Services Summit alongside 169 forums, conferences, and business promotion events, and presented comprehensive exhibitions and nine thematic exhibitions, creating a distinctive town-style showcase for trade in services. The fair attracted nearly 2,000 enterprises for onsite exhibition, including over 480 Fortune Global 500 and industry-leading companies, along with close to 5,600 online exhibitors. It drew more than 280,000 onsite visits and yielded over 900 outcomes of various types. These results further underscored the role of CIFTIS as a platform for China to expand opening-up, deepen cooperation and pioneer innovation.
At the meeting on Servicification and Trade in Services: Unlocking Opportunities for Developing Economies held during this year's CIFTIS, Kong Dejun, director-general of the Department of Trade in Services and Commercial Services at the Ministry of Commerce, stated that the world has entered the era of service economy, where services have become an important driving force for upgrading global value chains and trade in services has emerged as a new engine for global trade growth. In 2024, global service exports reached US$8.9 trillion, representing a year-on-year increase of 9.9 percent and contributing to 60 percent of the growth in global trade—clear indicators of its strong momentum and vast potential for future expansion. Services trade offers developing economies and SMEs more opportunities to participate in global value chains. Notably, developing countries now account for over 30 percent of global service exports, and emerging economies register significantly higher growth rates in service exports than developed ones, indicating their enormous development potential.
Kong emphasized that the Chinese government places a high priority on developing trade in services and expanding international cooperation in the services sector. China has been steadily widening the opening-up of its services sector and continuously easing restrictions on foreign investment access in services. The country is establishing a nationwide gradient opening-up system for cross-border trade in services and carrying out trials in qualified pilot free trade zones to align with high-standard international economic and trade rules. China is also actively strengthening international cooperation on trade in services, having signed cooperation agreements with 16 countries. Moreover, it continues to deepen practical cooperation and expand collaborative fields with fellow BRI countries, BRICS nations, SCO members, and other major services trade partners. In 2024, China's trade in services surpassed US$1 trillion, up 13.2 percent year-on-year, 4.2 percentage points higher than the global average growth rate. This progress not only provides the world with high-quality and diverse Chinese services but also opens the vast Chinese market to global services.
● China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) is co-hosted by the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China and the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality.
● CIFTIS is the largest comprehensive fair in the field of global trade in services, serving as an exhibition window, communication platform and cooperation bridge for the service industry and trade in services.
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