CIFTS has become a major exhibition platform for China in the opening-up process to the global economy. It has also become an important window for China's service industry.

The 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) officially opened on September 4 in Beijing. The 2020 CIFTIS, themed “Global Services, Shared Prosperity”,covers an area of more than 200,000 square meters.

Over 18,000 international and domestic companies from 148 countries and regions have signed up for the service trade fair, and over 100,000 have registered to attend the six-day event.

The CIFTIS is the first major economic and trade event being held in China since the coronavirus outbreak in January. The service trade fair will have both online and offline platforms to provide a safer environment for participants, considering the fickle nature of the coronavirus.

Highlights from CIFTS

A total of 5,926 domestic and international companies participated CIFTS through offline and online platforms. The companies that had exhibits at the CIFTS showcased how they used technologies such as 5G, big data and artificial intelligence to push industrial upgrading. 

5G will feature in two prominent ways in CIFTS.

A special exhibition will allow visitors to sample the full experience in a "miniature 5G world" of about 2,000 square meters. It promises an interactive and immersive experience that includes "smart city" and "smart consumption" areas.

Meanwhile, the 5G Communication Services Forum will invite representatives from leading international enterprises, as well as various experts, to discuss the profound impact the technology is expected to have on the global trade in services.

"At present, Beijing is trying to speed up the construction of new infrastructure, including 5G," said Wang De, director of the Electronics Department at the Beijing Bureau of Economy and Information Technology. "By the end of July, there were more than 24,000 5G base stations, with a planned total exceeding 30,000 by the end of the year."

One is stationed in the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone, an initiative in a southeastern suburb of the Chinese capital. Authorities say it's fully focused on building a 5G industry with global influence.

The deputy director of the zone's Business Cooperation Bureau, Yan Ying, said basic support capacity for the application of 5G on a major scale is leading the way. At present, Yizhuang Base, a national demonstration area for smart cars and smart transportation, has been built. And the world's first vehicle-to-everything urban road in a complex megacity with tidal lanes has also been built.

With the nation's major strategic achievements in fighting COVID-19, Chinese experience and wisdom has garnered a high reputation and proved popular at the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services

As the coronavirus pandemic rages across the world, entire economies are crumbling, borders are closing, and protectionism is on the rise. But many believe 5G has the power to bring us closer together, by increasing interconnectivity, facilitating collaboration and furthering the development of trade in services.

And all of that will be on show next month in Beijing, where industry leaders have vowed to share the fruits of an unfolding revolution.

In the physical comprehensive exhibition area, 42.3 percent of the 227 exhibiting companies are international players, they represented the new top-notch technologies and services in their respective fields. 

The official app of CIFTS attracted over 8 million visits worldwide, and a total of 5,372 companies build an online exhibition on the platform, 2,037 of them are in 3D. The participants launched 550,000 online business negotiations, and 26.4 percent of those online meetings are with overseas companies. 

The organizers have built a digital platform for the CIFTIS, where exhibitors can showcase their products, build a 3D immersive online showroom, host virtual meetings and seal the deals with their customers online.

The trade fair demonstrates to the world China's unwavering efforts in continuing economic opening-up and promoting global economic cooperation, said Wang Bingnan, deputy minister of China's Ministry of Commerce.

The service industry is now the main driving force behind the global economic growth and is taking up a larger share in global economic and trade cooperation. China is willing to deepen its cooperation with countries around the world in the service trade sector and promote economic globalization towards a more open, inclusive, balanced, and win-win direction, said Wang.

Wang said partly in consideration of pandemic control, the trade fair will move many of its signature activities online. He said that the fair that will run in a combination of online and offline events.

China's CIFTIS platform to boost trade in services

World services trade is set to boom with digitization and e-commerce, and China's flagship fair kicking will provide a platform for more international cooperation in this field, a World Trade Organization (WTO) official said.

Chai Xiaolin, director of the WTO's Trade in Services and Investment Division, said the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) taking place in Beijing from Sept 4 to Sept 9 is set to further bolster the role of global services and services trade.

"The forthcoming CIFTIS is a substantial and tremendous effort from China, as it is not only an international gathering of great importance and magnitude, but also the very first one held since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic," Chai told Xinhua in a recent written interview.

The CIFTIS 2020, one of the world's largest comprehensive fairs for trade in services, has both online and offline events due to the global pandemic situation. 

Since inaugurated in the year of 2012, CIFTIS has been successfully held for six sessions through eight years, becoming an important platform in the field of international trade in services to spread ideas, connect supply and demand, share business opportunities, and boost joint development.

It is the first comprehensive fair for trade in services across the world, and has blossomed into a leading fair in this field in China. The CIFTIS 2020 will host a total of 190 forums with over 17,000 companies attending. During the fair, a number of reports and new technology applications will also be released.

"In the long run, CIFTIS will continue to advance services and services trade as key contributors to the world economic recovery and world trade development," Chai said.

Chai said that the future of trade in services will be shaped by four trends: digitization, the rise in income, demographic development and climate change.

"Digitization is further realizing the potential for the cross-border supply of services. E-commerce related services trade has now taken up an increasing share of the world trade in services," she noted.

According to World Bank data, the services industry represents around 65 percent of the world's gross domestic product (GDP). In China, services also make up an increasing share of its GDP and currently account for some 54 percent of the country's output.

"Services trade has been growing (5.4 percent) faster than trade in goods (4.6 percent) annually since 2005, reaching $13.3 trillion in 2017," she wrote, citing numbers of the WTO's latest annual World Trade Report.

"These trends will lead to changes in the way trade is done, with more trade realized digitally, change in consumption patterns, as well as increasing demand for health and environmental related services," she said.

Chai said hosting the event during the COVID-19 pandemic shows the importance that China attaches to international cooperation.

"CIFTIS will serve as an important platform to enhance understanding on the role of services and services trade as the backbone of the economy, strengthen policy dialogue and coordination, provide trade and investment facilitation for business communities," she wrote.

The event came as the WTO in its annual trade forecast in April showed that the world trade is set to plummet 13-32 percent in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts normal economic activity and life around the world.

A 2021 recovery in trade is expected, but depends on the duration of the outbreak and the effectiveness of the policy responses, the global trade body warned.

"The WTO will continue to play an indispensable role in making multilateral rules to respond to the call of the international marketplace and to the sustained global economic growth," Chai said.

"China is an important member of the WTO, and with its rich experience from a fast-growing services market and e-commerce sector, China has been very active in the WTO discussions and negotiations on e-commerce, services domestic regulation, and investment facilitation for development with concrete proposals and contributions to advance the rule making process," she noted.