Trade in traditional services accounts for a relatively high proportion, so its structure needs to be optimized
China's service trade sectors are not developed in a balanced mode, and the trade structure is less reasonable. At the early stage of reform and opening up, the total volume of imports and exports in the three traditional services, namely transportation services, travel services and construction services, accounted for more than 70% of China's total service trade. In recent years, China's service export structure tends to be optimized, which can be represented by that the scale and proportion of emerging services such as communications, computer and information services, insurance services, financial services, etc. is constantly increasing. In terms of overall scale, however, China's service trade still mainly focuses on traditional fields such as transportation services and travel services with low added value. In 2020, the proportion of traditional services in total import and export volume is 50.2%, while that of knowledge-intensive service merely 44.5%. In a word, at present, China's trade in services still mainly relies on cheap labor resources to occupy the international market, and the products supplied by service trade need to be optimized.
Figure China's service trade structure in 2020 Source: the Ministry of Commerce
III. Existing problems
Leading MNCs( multinational companies) are insufficient, contributing to weak global influence.
MNCs, the market player of service trade and the carrier of direct investment engaged in service industry, are still small in number and weak in international competitiveness, which restricts the innovation and development of China's service trade. In particular, the proportion of MNCs with knowledge-intensive and high value-added services such as consultation, financial and insurance services is low, and there is a lack of leading enterprises and headquarters enterprises with international reputation and competitiveness. Service enterprises in the Fortune 500 are mainly distributed in developed countries such as the United States, Germany, Britain and France, and only a few of them are located in China. According to the “Chinese Transnational Corporations Top 100 and Transnationality Index”(2020) released by China Enterprise Confederation and China Enterprise Directors Association, China's top 100 MNCs are involved in many industries, including metal products, industrial and commercial machinery and equipment, construction, transportation equipment and parts manufacturing, but the number of MNCs that engaged in computer, communication equipment and other electronic equipment manufacturing, telecommunications and Internet information services is still small, accounting for less than 10%.
