Meeting promotes service trade along Belt and Road

A PROMOTION meeting on trade in services for the Belt and Road regions, an important supplement of the second China International Import Expo, was held yesterday.

The meeting aimed to acquaint participating enterprises with the latest policies on trade in services and offer them a chance to showcase their major service trade projects, and served as a platform for domestic and foreign companies to build connections.

Trade in services is playing an increasingly important role in the global economy and has become a new source of momentum for the development of foreign trade, said Xu Kunlin, Shanghai vice mayor.

“Openness is the biggest advantage of Shanghai and the opening up of the service sector is among the top priorities,” Xu said.

In 2018, the city’s total foreign service trade approximated US$200 billion in total. This year, Shanghai issued 40 new measures for a new round of opening up in the service sector in August.

The city’s commission of commerce has in recent years compiled a series of reports on service trade development and guidelines for key overseas markets, introducing the Belt and Road countries.

The reports help Chinese service enterprises to strengthen cooperation with these regions and to seize business opportunities in the Belt and Road areas.

At yesterday’s meeting, such a report for the United Arab Emirates was officially released, providing a comprehensive overview of the UAE’s trade in services.

Nearly 400 representatives of government authorities and businesses from 13 countries namely Belarus, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Germany, Mongolia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Kenya, Colombia, and Barbados attended the meeting.