This year’s “Two Sessions” (National People’s Congress, Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference) sent a positive message to the world that China will deepen reform and expand opening-up. The China International Fair for Trade In Services (CIFTIS), co-hosted by the Ministry of Commerce and the Beijing Municipality, has been running successfully for five years while becoming the leading exhibition for service industries in China and the world’s largest for Trade In Services. CIFTIS 2019 will be held in Beijing from May 28 to June 1 under the theme of “Opening-up, Innovation, Intelligence and Integration”.
To promote China’s expanded opening-up and deepening reforms, celebrating the national character on the 70th anniversary of the nation’s founding, continuing Belt and Road achievements following the second forum, and driving high-quality development of China’s service industries and trade in services, CIFTIS 2019 follows the guidance of “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era”, and China’s new development concepts. CIFTIS will continue to implement China’s opening-up strategy and emphasize exchange and cooperation in international trade in services, actively pushing for the facilitation and liberalization of global trade in service policies, building the economic power of trade in services while promoting an open world economy.
This year’s CIFTIS has 5 major features:
i. Highlighting expansion of opening-up in service industries and trade in services, contributing to building a new pattern of comprehensive opening-up.
CIFTIS will implement China’s strategy of expanding opening-up, displaying the 68 achievements made during the first two batches of Beijing’s expansion of opening-up in service industry and China’s opening-up measures such as free trade pilot zone, promoting Beijing’s new round of pilot policies for expansion of opening-up in the service industries, standards of trade in service, rule-making and system construction, advancing further opening-up and cooperation in global trade in services and contributing to building a community sharing the future for mankind.
ii. Stressing internationalization and deepening international Belt and Road cooperation on trade in services.
CIFTIS will invite countries from along the ‘Belt and Road’, the 30 top countries and regions of trade in services, 14 countries that signed trade in services agreements with China, and international trade associations and well-known enterprises across service industries and trade in services to participate in the fair.
iii. Emphasizing innovation-driven, intelligent development, integration and improvement; leading the innovation and development of service industries and trade in services.
CIFTIS actively implements innovation-driven development strategies, exhibiting new models, businesses, services, and technologies such as artificial intelligence and 5G as applied in service field; promotes innovation achievements in manufacturing, healthcare, and personal services, the digitization and intelligence of service industry and trade in services; facilitates integrated development between service industries including the modern service industry and advanced manufacturing, culture and tourism, and between trade in services and service consumers.
iv. Emphasizing trade negotiations, enabling participating enterprises to achieve practical cooperation.
CIFTIS recognizes serving customers as a fundamental goal, and facilitating trade negotiations as core, gathering demands for project trade and carrying out trade matching in advance, pushing negotiation, with more than 100 negotiating rounds scheduled, as trade support, and encouraging cooperation.
v. Creating a new exhibition layout, magnifying CIFTIS’ role as a platform.
This year’s CIFTIS uses one main venue supported by multiple others for the first time, the main venue China National Convention Center with the neighboring Beijing International Convention Center and Olympic Celebration Square. Other venues include Wangfujing Business Street, Financial Street, the Central Business District, Huilonguan and Tiantongyuan areas, and others.
As the world economy is in slow recovery and China’s economy enters a stage of high-quality development following its rapid growth, the development of trade in services faces a range of new challenges. As a state-level, international and comprehensive trading platform for trade in services, CIFTIS is important to serving national politics and economics, diplomacy and foreign trade, reform and expansion of opening up, and development, while achieving high-quality development of China’s service industries and trade in services.
CIFTIS is the first comprehensive platform specializing in world-wide Trade In Service. The World Trade Organization (WTO), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) are permanent supporters. CIFTIS is the only platform in the world covering the 12 sectors of trade in services as defined by the WTO: business services, communication services, construction & engineering services, distribution services, educational services, environmental services, financial services, health & social services, tourism & travel-related services, recreational, cultural & sports services, transport services and other services.
Source: CIFTIS
http://www.ciftis.org.