CIFTIS highlights in Beijing. Photos: Li Hao/GT

China's main annual services trade fair concluded Monday in Beijing with 1,339 achievements and greater and more internationalized participation, injecting renewed vitality into the revival of global services trade despite the still-raging COVID-19.

The 2022 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), the largest comprehensive exhibition in global services trade, was held against multiple new challenges confronting global economic recovery and world trade, Ding Yong, director of the Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau, told a media briefing at the conclusion of the six-day event. 

Speaking at the Monday briefing, Wang Zhihua, an official with the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), stressed that the 2022 CIFTIS once again demonstrates China's confidence and determination to expand its high-level opening-up and foster the prosperity and development of global services trade.

As of now, the event had seen 1,339 achievements, including 513 related to transactions, 175 related to investment, 173 innovations that premiered at the CIFTIS and 128 strategic agreements, Wang said.

The trade fair, covering 152,000 square meters of exhibition space, featured 128 panel sessions and 65 promotion and negotiation activities. The number of businesses attending the event in person topped 2,400, while those signing for online participation exceeded 7,800. Additionally, the cumulative event attendance hit over 250,000, according to Ding, and all these numbers outpaced that of last year.

This year's CIFTIS attracted 507 Fortune Global companies and industry leading firms, Ding disclosed. He cited momentous industry achievements on show, including China's homegrown C919 aircraft, indigenous nuclear power technology known as Guohe No.1, and the sand table of a fully automated terminal in Nansha port in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province.

Furthermore, more than 60 companies and institutions debuted 100-plus new products, technologies and deliverables in the spheres of artificial intelligence and fintech, among others, at the annual services trade fair, outnumbering the event's 2021 edition, according to figures announced Monday.

A more internationalized attendance also attested to the event's appeal regardless of varied uncertainties and headwinds weighing on the global economy at large. 

Ten countries, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Switzerland, hosted exhibitions at the CIFTIS for the first time in the name of their countries and the number of attendees on behalf of their countries or headquarters of international organizations this year rose by 13 from the previous year, Ding revealed.

The event's total internationalization ratio stood at 20.8 percent, encapsulating 27 of top 30 countries and regions in terms of services trade prowess, he went on to say, speaking of the continued expansion of the CIFTIS' international "circle of friends."

The MOFCOM official pledged to push for the implementation of cross-border services trade negative list and continue to improve the institutional opening-up of services trade. 

Wang also urged to tap into opportunities arising from the implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, so as to beef up the country's services trade with the pact's membership. 

On top of that, China's application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement is supposed to rev up the country's alignment with global high standards and rules, he added.

As one of China's three platforms showcasing its opening-up push, the 2022 CIFTIS offers participating firms an opportunity to show their globalization progress, US electric carmaker Tesla said a statement sent to the Global Times. The other two platforms are the China International Import Expo in Shanghai and the Canton Fair in Guangzhou.

Describing itself as a witness of and participant in China's avowal of opening-up and cooperation, Tesla reckoned its Shanghai gigafactory that exemplifies its achievements in new-energy vehicles to be proof of the strength and efficiency of made in China.

Global Times