Local residents and tourists participate in an F1-themed auto culture festival at the North Bund International Cruise Terminal in Shanghai on March 22, 2025. Photo: VCG
Amid rising global unilateralism and protectionism, China is accelerating the expansion of pilot programs for the services sector, further expanding independent and unilateral opening-up in an orderly manner, Ling Ji, vice minister of commerce and deputy China international trade representative, said on Monday.
This is a concrete action to manage China's own affairs well and inject more certainty and stability into the world, Ling told a press conference held by the State Council Information Office in Beijing on Monday regarding the recently released work plan that aims to expand the nation's comprehensive pilot programs to more cities to accelerate the opening-up of the services sector.
According to the work plan, nine additional cities were added in the pilot program, including Dalian in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, Ningbo in East China's Zhejiang Province, Xiamen in East China's Fujian Province and Shenzhen in South China's Guangdong Province.
Specifically, the work plan outlines 155 pilot tasks across multiple dimensions, including the opening of key services sectors and the promotion of industrial innovation and development. For example, in the telecommunications sector, it proposes lifting foreign ownership restrictions for services such as app stores and internet access. In the healthcare sector, it supports allowing foreign doctors to open clinics and allowing short-term practice by overseas medical professionals.
In the financial sector, the plan encourages exploring the development of international factoring services, supports multinational companies in conducting cross-border centralized fund management in the yuan, and calls for furthering the pilot program for Qualified Foreign Limited Partners.
In the commerce, trade, culture and tourism sectors, foreign-invested travel agencies will be allowed to operate outbound tourism services. In transportation, cooperation in container maritime transport, interchange and sharing will be supported.
Speaking of the importance of accelerating pilot programs in the services sector, Ling said that there are multiple considerations, including the need to respond to the current complex and evolving international landscape.
He said that the global economic recovery lacks momentum, particularly as the announcement by the US of so-called reciprocal tariffs has seriously undermined the multilateral trading system, severely disrupted the international trade order and posed significant threats to the security and stability of global production and supply chains.
"To better respond to the external impact and challenges we currently face, our work plan emphasizes alignment with high-standard international economic and trade rules" such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, Ling said.
The work plan "reflects China's unwavering commitment to further opening-up in the current context, highlights the comprehensive strengths of expanding opening-up in the services sector, and demonstrates China's firm support for economic globalization, the strong defense of the multilateral trading system, and the determination to promote openness and shared development with countries around the world," the vice minister said.
Efforts will be accelerated to carry out the tasks set out in the work plan, promote faster and stronger progress in the pilot programs, and better lead and drive the nationwide opening-up of the services sector, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
"China has long led the world in the scale of goods trade, but there remains significant room for growth in the area of services trade, reflected in the growing share of household spending on cultural tourism and services consumption, from both the supply and demand sides," Hu Qimu, a deputy secretary-general of the Digital-Real Economies Integration Forum 50, told the Global Times on Monday.
As China continues to advance its own development, it remains committed to openness and cooperation, despite rising protectionism in the world, Hu said, noting that the ongoing opening-up of China's services sector creates more opportunities for global businesses to share in the benefits of China's growing market.
In 2024, the share of China's services sector in GDP continued to rise, reaching 56.7 percent, an increase of 0.4 percentage points year-on-year, the Xinhua News Agency reported. In terms of average annual employment, the services sector added more than 7 million jobs compared with 2023.
"The services sector is a vital pillar of the modern economy, with its share of GDP continuing to rise," Hong Tao, director of the Institute of Business Economics at Beijing Technology and Business University, told the Global Times on Monday.
"Domestically, expanding opening-up introduces advanced services concepts and technologies, promotes management expertise and creates more jobs. Internationally, as unilateralism and protectionism continue to rise, China remains committed to further opening-up, sharing opportunities with the world and sending a clear signal of stability and cooperation," the expert said.
阅读原文：https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202504/1332549.shtml