New impetus for high-quality development of foreign trade
The structure of cross-border trade in services is continuously optimized. In 2020, knowledge-intensive services accounted for 55.3% of exports, 22.1 percentage points higher than that at the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan Period. The digital trade in services such as service outsourcing has rapidly developed, becoming an important force to stabilize foreign trade and employment. In 2020, the offshore implementation volume of service outsourcing amounted for USD 105.78 billion, with 12.909 million people employed, up 63.7% and 73.3% respectively from the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan period.
Trade in services has become a new frontier for opening up. In 2015, the comprehensive pilot project of expanding and opening up the service industry in Beijing was launched, which promoted the further opening up of China in the fields of finance, science and technology, information, cultural creativity and business services.
In 2016, China launched the pilot programs for innovative development of trade in services, accelerated the exploration and promotion of opening up in the pilot areas in the fields of transportation, education, medical care, finance and professional services, formed complementary advantages with the Free Trade Zone and the pilot programs of expanding and opening up the service industry, and built a core platform for opening up the trade in services field in China in the new era.
In 2020, Hainan Province started the construction of a free trade port, aiming to take the lead in exploring the negative list mode of cross-border trade in services, and promote the opening of all fields under the modes of cross-border delivery, consumption abroad and presence of natural persons. At the same time, the service industry has become the leading field of foreign investment utilization in China. In 2020, the actual utilization of foreign investment in service industry reached USD 100.13 billion, 1.3 times that at the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan Period, accounting for 77.7% of China's total foreign investment, up 10.1 percentage points compared with the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan Period.
