Photo: Xinhua

 China plans to hold the 8th China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) between the end of August and the beginning of September with a combination of online and offline exhibitions, a Chinese official announced.

The services trade fair of global importance will focus on the digital sector, as officials plan to set up a digital services zone for the first time, according to media reports.

The 2021 CIFTIS digital services zone will invite leading domestic and overseas companies in sectors including 5G, big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain and cloud computing to showcase front digitalization application progress in the global services field, said Sun Yao, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Commerce, on the first online briefing of the event on Friday, news website chinanews.com reported.

Events including brands forums and conferences at the 2021 fair will also emphasize digital trade, according to Sun.

Setting up digital services zones for the first time shows the country’s growing confidence in boosting digital industries and digital businesses’ capacity to expand to overseas markets, according to experts.

As an influential global platform to boost international cooperation for the service sector, the online CIFTIS saw great achievements in September 2020 despite the coronavirus, said Zhang Yi, CEO of Shenzhen-based iiMedia Research.

China’s digital industry has experienced accelerated growth pushed by COVID-19 and the major service trade fair is expected to see a bigger leap this year building on the success of events in past years, Zhang added.    

Global Times